Relational analysis in socially innovative initiatives. The case study of Alianza Mar Blava (Ibiza-Formentera)
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Abstract
During the last years, local development studies have recovered social innovation as analytical approach to organizational changes and social relations transformation in territories. Thus, there is an interest in how to examine the intangible aspect of this dimension of local development. Henceforth, social capital gains special attention as a theoretical approach to understand relational analysis. This research is based on a case study, a socially innovative initiative (Alianza Mar Blava, Ibiza and Formentera area) for which 35 in-depth interviews have been conducted. The study identifies the stakeholders’ social network and characterises the personal networks and other attributes of these actors. Consequently, Social Network Analysis has been applied, combining sociocentric structural analysis and egocentric attributive analysis. The main results show that power in the network is distributed amongst different socio-professional profiles. Likewise, women, young people and people with post-secondary studies hold the highest control over the network. The conclusion section reflects upon the innovation and development dynamics promoted by social networks such as those recognised in Alianza Mar Blava.