Grassroots innovations, values and social change: The case of a grassroots organization in Buenos Aires

This article explores the role of values (Gehman, et al. 2013; Daskalaki et al. 2019) in the emergence and evolution of Grassroots Innovations (GIs) in the context of Argentina GIs are developed by communities as a means to overcome social exclusion while at the same time strive for a better future. GIs experience an intrinsic challenge: while they address social injustice, they are not able to address ultimately its causes (Smith et al., 2014). Focusing on the underpinning values of alternative bottom-up organising, we turn the GIs’ capacity to transform the experience of local communities through the development of alternative social relations and subjectivities. Employing a participative ethnography, we highlight the interconnectedness and fluidity of political, organisational and individual values in GIs, and propose that through micro-transformations, GIs could potentially function as platforms for social change.