Nevelina Pachova (p), Adriana Veran (p), Ralph Horne

Marta Meleddu

External funding, collective action and transformative change: Crowding out of intrinsic motivation for social and governance innovation? Insights from the context of Leon

Nevelina Pachova and Adriana Veran, RMIT Europe

The European Commission has committed to making Europe carbon-neutral by 2050, while leaving no region or person behind in the process of change. This implies the phasing out or transformation of a range of carbon-intensive industries, with significant implications for the territorial development of the areas and regions where they are based. The EU Just transition fund was developed to help off-set some of the negative impacts of such processes of decarbonization by providing targeted funding aimed to catalyse and support innovation that enables a shift towards less carbon-intensive pathways for territorial development, while leaving no one behind.

Social and governance innovation are arguably essential for stimulating inclusive transformative change, such as the one called upon by the European ambitions of achieving both ecological and social justice for all. Both, however, are most often driven by intrinsically-motivated collective action that pushes the boundaries of existing systems towards alternative modes of relating with people and nature as a basis for change. External incentives, could arguably lead to the crowding out of such intrinsic motivation. Therefore, it remains unclear whether and if so under what conditions external funding such as the one provided by the EU JT Fund could stimulate social and governance innovation for transformative change.

The study explores this question in the context of Leon and specifically the former coal-mining areas in the region, which are eligible to receive funding from the EU Just Transition Fund. We employ a qualitative research approach involving semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and some elements of ethnographic research involving a range of communities from across the region. The findings suggest that structural barriers to accessing EU funding make them inaccessible to small-scale grassroots initiatives that are driving social innovation across the region, thus discarding the danger of the crowding out hypothesis. Taking a broader, multi-level governance perspective of social innovative, however, allows us to also explore the impact of EU funding on stimulating governance innovation, a question that generates a much more nuanced response and draws attention to the role of politics, context-specific governance structures and personal values as critical factors mediating the relationship between external funding and transformative governance change.

Artur Ochojski (p), Jessica Clement, Lama Alrada, Nathalie Crutzen

Nevelina Pachova & Adriana Veran

The paper delves into the realm of transformative innovation policies (TIPs) as a framework to address grand challenges such as climate change and achieve societal prosperity. In contrast to traditional innovation approaches, TIPs prioritize social and environmental objectives, aiming for economic growth by enhancing overall welfare. Executed through diverse instruments, TIPs often function within a multi-level governance structure, spanning supra-national, national, regional, and local levels. Despite their intended inclusivity and engagement with marginalized communities, practical insights into these aspects of TIPs remain limited.
This study, set in Belgium, focuses on the European Green Deal as a TIP and the Just Transition Fund as a specific instrument. Through semi-structured interviews, challenges within multi-level governance hindering local engagement are revealed.
The paper proposes an emergent model advocating for bottom-up participation and the inclusion of marginalized communities in TIP implementation. Additionally, it discusses the potential integration of the participatory governance school of thought to enhance the existing TIP literature.

Marta Meleddu (p), Bianca Biagi

Artur Ochojski

Social norms can play a role in mitigating environmental externalities by promoting virtuous behaviour (Kollmuss & Agyeman, 2002; Perry et al., 2021). Empirical evidence demonstrates that different cultures vary in their level of environmental concern and behaviour (Eisler, Eisler, & Yoshida, 2003; Zheng & Yoshino, 2003; Oreg & Katz-Gerro, 2006; Gifford & Nilson, 2014; van der Linden, 2015). Ceteris paribus the economic situation, in societies with high social norms, a complementarity between government intervention and individuals’ engagement is expected. Environmental consciousness (i.e., concern) and actions (i.e., behaviour) are likely to be closely intertwined in these societies and concern for the environment and consistent behaviour may be indistinguishable (Czajkowski et al., 2020). Individuals in such societies are aware of environmental risks and adapt their consumption and daily choices accordingly. Conversely, in societies with low social norms, an expectation exists for a substitution between government intervention and individuals' engagement. In these societies, individuals may anticipate public intervention in favour of the environment. Therefore, environmental consciousness and actions are likely not to be closely intertwined, hence, a gap between individual concern and behaviour is likely to be observed in societies with weak or poorly established social norms.
On the bases of this premises, this study aims to analyse the environmental concern and behaviour within a sample of developed EU countries different in their social norms using data from the PEW Research Center's "Spring 2021 Global Attitudes Survey." The survey examines individual responses from for nine European countries, focusing on environmental concern and willingness to change behavior. Social norms are proxied by social capital indicators, and government interventions are measured by environmental policies adopted since the '50s (OECD).
The statistical method employed is the Combination of a Uniform and a Shifted Binomial distribution model (CUB), allowing for the analysis of ordinal data. The empirical results partially confirm the hypotheses, shedding light on the intricate interplay between social norms, government interventions, and individual behavior.