Appraisal of social-ecological innovation as an adaptive response by stakeholders to local conditions: Mapping stakeholder involvement in horticulture orientated green space management

• Social-ecological innovation in urban areas demonstrates an adaptive response to both social and ecological levels of deprivation.
• Poor but improving social conditions were important in the emergence of innovation.
• Levels of domestic green space in particular were closely associated with frequency of social-ecological innovation.

Urban areas are hubs of creativity and innovation providing fertile ground for novel responses to modern environmental challenges. Previous studies have attempted to conceptualise the ecological, social and political potential of social-ecological innovation in urban green space management. However, little work has been conducted on the social-ecological conditions influencing their occurrence and distribution. Further research is therefore necessary to demonstrate whether stakeholder stewardship of green resources contributes towards adaptive capacity in social-ecological systems. The research reported here explored the extent of organised social-ecological innovations in a continuous urban landscape comprising three adjoining metropolitan areas: Manchester, Salford and Trafford (UK). Examples of horticulture orientated organised social-ecological innovation were identified using a snowball-sampling method. Their distribution, explored with GIS and remote sensing technology, was found to be significantly associated with levels of both, social and ecological, deprivation. The study presented social-ecological innovation as an adaptive response to environmental stressors, conditioned by specific social and ecological parameters in the landscape. It therefore provides empirical support for social-ecological innovation as a valid ingredient contributing to resilience in adaptive social-ecological systems. Not only do such collective community-led elements of natural resource management warrant acknowledgement in urban green space planning, but their distribution and productivity may provide a valuable social-ecological laboratory for the study of polycentric governance and adaptive capacity in the urban environment.