Callorda Fossati, Ela
[UCL]
Degavre, Florence
[UCL]
Sampling is an essential step in the process of theory building yet it is rarely dealt with explicitly in social innovation research. This paper addresses some of the specific methodological issues in social innovation research that are in relation with the understanding of social innovation as a contested concept. More specifically, it deals with the practical needs of identifying and selecting units of analysis in order to constitute a relevant sample of innovative practices and proceed to multiple in-depth case study. This paper shows why an adapted version of the Delphi method can be considered as an appropriate way to address the challenges linked to the fragmented and cleaved definition of the very concept of social innovation. It also accounts for the ad hoc methodological approach that was used in order to identify, sort out and select the empirical material to study social innovation in the elderly home care sector in Wallonia in the context of a partner-oriented research.


Bibliographic reference |
Callorda Fossati, Ela ; Degavre, Florence. How to deal with a contested concept on the field? Sampling social innovations through the Delphi method.6th EMES conference on Social entreprises for sustainable societies (Louvain-La-Neuve, du 3/07/2017 au 7/07/2017). |
Permanent URL |
http://hdl.handle.net/2078.1/184774 |