User-Led Social Innovation – Emerging Ecosystems and Policy Frameworks

Abstract

This article presents a study that critically analyzes the role of public policy and discourse in shaping Iceland’s emerging social innovation ecosystem, with a particular focus on social entrepreneurs who draw on their lived experiences. Lived experience refers to social entrepreneurs’ direct personal experience of the social challenges their social initiatives address. The study combines discourse analysis of innovation policies with critical phenomenological analysis of twenty-two interviews with twenty-six social entrepreneurs. The discourse analysis applies Hulgård and Ferreira’s (2019) four-discourse model of social innovation to examine national and municipal innovation policies, distinguishing between discourses rooted in the third or social sector, volunteerism, new public management (NPM), and new public governance (NPG). The findings underscore the importance of integrating user knowledge into policy and practice, providing valuable insights for governments, academics, and policymakers dedicated to fostering participation, inclusion, and equality in social innovation processes, contributing to welfare and social change.