The polymorphic legitimation of rural innovation: Spatial valuation logics and strategies

Innovation has long become a central theme in rural research and policy. Yet, in light of increasingly contested politics of novelty, what counts as “innovative” has become less self-evident, raising questions about how novelty and change are legitimized in rural areas. Empirical research shows that innovators mobilize place-based identities, translocal networks, territorial institutions, and broader societal causes to gain recognition for novel solutions, underscoring the inherently socio-spatial character of rural innovation legitimation. However, most studies focus on single spatial dimensions, with limited attention to how legitimation emerges through interacting socio-spatial relations. This article addresses this gap by conceptualizing the legitimation of rural innovation processes as a fundamentally polymorphic phenomenon. From this perspective, two propositions are advanced. First, rural innovators mobilize valuation simultaneously across and combine multiple spatial valuation logics. Second, legitimation emerges not only through alignment with spatial valuation logics, but also through their strategic reconfiguration. The argument is developed through rural innovation biographies and operationalized as a heuristic lens for analyzing legitimation as a polymorphic phenomenon. The article makes two key contributions. First, building on the notions of spatial valuation logics and strategies, it provides an actor-centered account of how novelty and change become established as legitimate and socially acceptable in rural areas. Second, extending current debates on the creative assets of peripheries, it shows how rural innovation processes are not only contingent upon, but also co-constituting rural areas as multidimensional valuation and innovation spaces.