Social Innovation Achieved in a Development Trap: Examples of Local Efforts in Hungary

This study explores how social innovation and multi-level governance (MLG) can enhance regional resilience and help overcome the Middle-Income Trap (MIT) through cooperative, community-driven strategies. Focusing on Hungarian self-governments, it examines twinning partnerships—formal relationships between settlements—as potential catalysts of social innovation and regional cohesion. A nationwide questionnaire survey (Number of settlements surveyed: 409; representative by settlement type) conducted between 2024 and 2025 evaluated the motivations, intensity and impacts of these partnerships. The findings reveal that intraethnic twinning networks are more socially active and locally grounded, strengthening community identity and civic participation, even though they provide limited direct economic benefits. By fostering trust, collaboration, and cross-border interaction, these partnerships act as effective platforms for social innovation, supporting more inclusive and territorially integrated development across Central and Eastern Europe.