Community engagement for social and environmental innovation: a Sicilian case study

This project sets out to consider the contextual difficulties for community engagement efforts for social and environmental innovation in a rural Sicilian setting. Having conducted a community based participatory research study with the principle of grounded theory, the researcher set out to immerse in a rural Sicilian setting alongside a number of community organisers and activists. Whilst presenting some relevant and action-oriented contemporary literature around community engagement theory at a rural festival the researcher intended to gain first-hand insight into some of the opportunities and challenges faced by local change-agents for stimulating community-led social and environmental innovation. Consequently, the researcher conducted a series of interviews with a wide range of community members to gain deeper insights into some of the contextual difficulties behind stimulating change in a rural Sicilian setting.