Social Innovation in Affordable Housing

Linda Lövgren (), Inga-Lill Söderberg () and Olli Vigren ()
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Linda Lövgren: Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, Royal Institute of Technology, Postal: Teknikringen 10B, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Inga-Lill Söderberg: Department of Real Estate and Construction Management, Royal Institute of Technology, Postal: Teknikringen 10B, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
Olli Vigren: Stanford University, Postal: Center for Integrated Facility Engineering and Scandinavian Consortium for Organizational Research, Stanford, 94305, California, United States

No 25/6, Working Paper Series from Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Real Estate and Construction Management & Banking and Finance

Abstract: The lack of affordable housing is a longstanding global challenge. Addressing this issue requires not only technical solutions but also new social practices – social innovation. This article explores the role of social innovation in increasing access to affordable housing through a theory-focused literature review. We find that the concepts often lack clarity and theoretical grounding, making it difficult to measure innovation outcomes or guide practical implementation. We adopt the social innovation ecosystem framework developed by Audretsch et al. (2022) and discuss policy, finance, culture, supports, human capital, and market perspectives. We propose an expanded version of the framework, adapted specifically for affordable housing. It introduces two key additions: explicit identification of the social innovator and the integration of spatial concepts—space and place—to capture the inherently local nature of housing initiatives. This contribution aims to advance both social innovation theory and housing research, while also informing policy and practice.

Keywords: social innovation; innovation; affordable housing; social housing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O35 R21 R31 R38 R58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17 pages
Date: 2025-06-25
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino and nep-sbm
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