Dall’innovazione sociale all’eco-welfare: il ruolo degli incubatori territoriali

The growing need to integrate environmental sustainability and social equity has led to the emergence of eco-welfare, which rethinks traditional welfare models in the socioecological transition. This work explores the role of social incubators as pre-distributive eco-welfare devices, analyzing comparative experiences in Latin America. Through a qualitative-comparative approach based on case studies in Argentina and Brazil, the research demonstrates how social incubators operate as socio-ecological innovation laboratories, experimenting with forms of mutualism and inclusive practices that integrate sustainable development and social justice. The analysis shows that incubators constitute territorial ecosystems capable of socializing the benefits of ecological transition already in the production phase, through the construction of alternative markets, participatory methodologies, and community governance. The results confirm the potential of incubators in generating more resilient and territorialized welfare models, offering insights to rethink social policies in the contemporary socio-ecological crisis