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Blueprints for the Future of Welfare Provision? Shared Features of Service Innovations across Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2014

Benjamin Ewert  and
Adalbert Evers
Benjamin Ewert
Affiliation:
Institute for Household Economics, Justus-Liebig-University Gießen E-mail: benjamin.ewert@sowi.uni-giessen.de
Adalbert Evers
Affiliation:
Institute for Household Economics, Justus-Liebig-University, Gießen E-mail: adalbert.evers@uni-giessen.de
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Abstract

This article discusses localised forms of social innovation in social services in relation to social policy and welfare issues. It draws upon research findings from the EU project ‘Welfare Innovations at the local Level in favour of Cohesion’ (WILCO), which takes in social innovations in twenty European cities. First, we argue why there is currently a significant gap between the debate on social innovation and the debate on social welfare reforms. Second, we present attempts that have been made to identify and interpret recurring approaches and instruments in the social innovations studied in relation to various dimensions of the debate on social welfare and services, such as the search for new ways of addressing users and citizens; the emphasis on new risks and related approaches to the issues of rights and responsibilities; and finally the concern with issues of governance. We argue that the features of the local innovations we identified may be significant for welfare systems at large, going beyond the introduction of special new items in special fields. However, the degree to which this will come about in reality will depend on building more bridges of shared understanding between concerns with social innovation on the one hand and welfare reforms on the other hand.

Keywords

Social Innovationgovernancesocial investment
Type
Themed Section on Social Innovation and Social Policy
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , July 2014 , pp. 423 - 432
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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