Grassroots Innovation Movements: Lessons for theory and practice

Taking their periods of activity in sum, the case studies across the previous six chapters provide over a century of grassroots innovation experience. What can we learn from such experience? The aim in this chapter is to look across the case studies in order to identify recurring features and appreciate key differences that, amid the diversity and complexities of any particular movement, might nevertheless be instructive. Each of the case studies was motivated by the same three questions (Chapter 1). Why did this grassroots innovation movement emerge? How did activists mobilize support and activities in grassroots innovation? What dilemmas confronted the movement when constructing alternative pathways, and how did it negotiate those dilemmas?