Detecting Social Innovation agency: Methodological reflections on units of analysis in dispersed transformation processes

Considering that it is important for the social innovation research field toconfront its methodological challenges, this contribution addresses thechallenge of choosing appropriate units of analysis. In processes oftransformative social innovation, the agency is distributed and thereforefundamentally difficult to detect and ascribe. This contribution addresses thechallenge to develop methodologies that are consistent with this relationalontology, critically evaluating the three main unit of analysis choices thatguided an international comparison of 20 transnational SI networks and theirlocal manifestations. Methodological lessons are drawn on the actors that SIcan be ascribed to, on the transnational agency through which it spreads and onthe relevant transformation contexts involved. This provides SI research withmethodological tools to handle the elusiveness of SI agency, a methodologicalchallenge that becomes particularly pressing in attempts towards systematiccomparison of cases.