Social innovation in the making: Action research on relationship building and role understanding in the co-development of a Participatory Guarantee System in Argentina

Social innovation (SI) is gaining attention to explore how multistakeholder initiatives create new social practices for local food system development. Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) is a group-based certification scheme for sustainable farming, comprising new social practices that require changes in relationships and roles. Research highlights potentials of PGS to produce SI; however, without providing insights into the innovation process, needed to learn how relationship and role building occur and how SI can be facilitated through action research. We addressed these gaps in a four-year action research that co-developed a PGS in Argentina. The overall aim of studying relationship and role building required to establish PGS was operationalized by i) analysing ambitions for change of relationships of involved groups; ii) examining how relationship building evolved and how it was facilitated; and iii) exploring changes in role understanding and performance. Therein, we reflected on how action research can enhance SI and transformation in local food system development. The processual analysis showed that SI was facilitated when narratives of change were shared across stakeholder environments and a socially constructed facilitation mandate was created. Critical role reflection was stimulated, while performance was constrained when individual benefits were uncertain, underscoring the need to elaborate on role expectations in the initiation phase.