Potentials of Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas – An overview of the SIMRA project
European institutions have identified both rural and ‘marginal’ areas in the context of rural development policy and cohesion policy. Rural areas have been defined by Eurostat, using population density (Eurostat, n.d.). A number of types of ‘marginal’ areas have been mapped, for instance in the ESPON GEOSPECS project (University of Geneva et al. 2012), which used defining criteria relating to topography, accessibility and population potential. The project ‘Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas’ (SIMRA), running since April 2016 and funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Programme, builds on such previous work with particular attention being paid to countries of Eastern and Southern Mediterranean as well as the rest of Europe which also includes mountainous areas. First intermediate results of the methodological work to analyse Social Innovation will be presented, both defining ‘marginalised rural areas’ according to consistent criteria, and presenting their characteristics according to criteria – e.g. demographic, economic, land use, transport – that are relevant for social innovation in such areas. Challenges discussed include those of undertaking analysis at such a wide regional scale, with particular reference to issues of appropriateness of scale and spatial resolution.