Regional Case Studies and Institutional Settings

Abstract

For innovation to happen policy-making processes have to be open and capable of incorporating and adapting to new knowledge that is produced within civil society by innovators. Innovators are the creators and holders of new knowledge that can be used productively. Therefore, for regional innovation strategies to succeed and spend R&D money most efficiently in their pursuit of sustainable and smart growth, it is necessary to create ad hoc mechanisms of participatory democracy to allow for systematic inputs from innovators. To this end, democracy does not mean the formal process through which representative institutions are legitimized to exercise power. Rather, democracy means the conception and creation of the modalities to engage knowledge creators and holders that are best suited for territorial communities of states and their regions and localities, and without which innovation can be neither initiated nor sustained.