Doctoral thesis: social hackathons as solutions to the underdevelopment of peripheral regions

Social innovation refers to fresh ideas and new approaches that help address problems such as inequality, poverty, loneliness, environmental crises and more. The goal is to create lasting and meaningful change that takes into account the specificities of the situation. For example, the kindergarten system that originated in Germany in the 19th century was a form of social innovation at the time, helping to improve women’s social position. Today, it is no longer an innovation but part of the system. Social innovation focuses more on relationships and cooperation between different groups, combining community, private and public sector resources and time-space specificities, rather than technology. In rural areas, where traditional development models are often limited, it creates sustainable alternatives
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Hackathons originated in the tech sector around the turn of the century as intense 48-hour software development events to find new solutions to coding problems. Over the past decade, this concept has spread rapidly across the Estonian start-up scene and expanded into the public sector. While the hackathons have proven their ability to accelerate innovation, it has become clear that simply transferring the model from the private sector does not always produce the desired outcomes when addressing more complicated societal challenges. This study shows that if the hackathon format is adapted while retaining its key components – such as bringing together a large group of people for an intensive weekend, the competitive element, a user-centred approach and an informal, relaxed atmosphere – the hackathon can also become an effective tool in the public sector and communities by shifting the focus to co-creation and supporting diverse participation. Hackathons can be a surprisingly effective tool for triggering innovative solutions, even in rural areas. 

In her research work, Kandri Kangro designed a hackathon format with four organisational cycles between 2018 and 2020 as a tailored co-creation platform using Võru County as a case study, with a focus on the social aspect of hackathons. Since 2018, the social hackathons organised in Võru County can now also be found in other parts of Estonia and abroad and have proven that this approach creates a foundation for sustainable solutions for local development. While a traditional hackathon focuses on quick-to-produce prototype solutions, a social hackathon prioritises building trust and partnerships. It gives participants the opportunity to learn more about the problem together and pool their knowledge and resources to come up with a solution. This, in turn, strengthens community relations and supports collaborative governance.

For example, the ‘Mahe & Muhe’ initiative was launched during the first social hackathon in 2018, where organic food enthusiasts, both community members and entrepreneurs, dreamed of turning Võru County into an organic food region. Through the social hackathon, the initiators of the idea found partners and designed a practical roadmap for making the change happen. They started by raising awareness among school cooks and working on menus to increase demand for local organic food. Shifting the focus from the big vision to discovering the details of the problem helped the team in coming up with concrete solutions. This led to a training and mentoring programme for school cooks, which in turn led to a regional policy agreement to use organic food in schools. The initiative group went further with this idea, and as a result, an organic food support scheme for schools was introduced at the national level in 2022. This shows that social hackathons can trigger systemic and lasting change through co-creation.

The experience of the social hackathons shows that communities hold the potential for social innovation and that a co-creation approach can help solve local problems. Peripheral regions face increasingly complex challenges that cannot be solved with public sector resources alone. While there are many theoretical frameworks for social innovation, their application to governance practices remains limited. The research carried out as part of Kadri Kangro’s doctoral thesis will help to understand how social innovation actually works in rural areas and how to create the necessary conditions needed for it. Strong social ties, a sense of place and cultural heritage can prove to be powerful assets for development in peripheral regions, when they are consciously targeted and applied as a driving force for regional development. However, this requires institutional support to ensure that co-creation does not remain a one-off experiment. In Estonia, these conditions are still underdeveloped. To ensure that the impact of the social hackathon goes beyond the event itself, a supportive innovation environment and flexible governance structures are needed to help initiatives take root.

Kadri Kangro, a PhD candidate at the School of Governance, Law and Society in Tallinn University, defended her doctoral thesis “An Analysis of Social Hackathons as a Co-creative Innovative Solution to Local Societal Challenges” on 11 March. The supervisor of the thesis was Katri-Liis Lepik, Associate Professor at Tallinn University. Opponents were Harri Jalonen, Professor at the University of Vaasa, and Marko Uibu, Associate Professor at the University of Tartu.