Abstract

In recent decades, innovation has reconfigured the ways in which public policies are designed and implemented, citizen participation is managed, and social interventions are produced. Considering the relevance of these new local development experiences, this article presents the results of a research project aimed at identifying and analyzing the innovation practices deployed in a citizen laboratory. This is a qualitative research based on a case study, in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 members of the organization. The results identify four forms of innovation: affective-community innovation, pragmatic-institutional innovation, self-formative-creative innovation, and infrastructural-contested innovation. It is concluded that these forms should not be understood as mutually exclusive categories or as distinct ideal models, but rather as ways of doing that coexist and are dynamically assembled within situated contexts, shaping a practical field traversed by relations of tension, articulation, and mutual dependence.