Policy Press Local Social Innovation to Combat Poverty and Exclusion: A Critical Appraisal

Based on more than 30 case studies in eight different countries, this book explores the governance dynamics of local social innovations in the field of poverty reduction. The diverse team of contributors illustrate how different governance dynamics and welfare mixes enable or hinder poverty reduction strategies and analyse how they involve a variety of actors, instruments and resources at different spatial scales. Review “This book is a milestone in the experimental world of social innovation, the micro-governance of social innovation and the debate on practices of future democracy.” Frank Moulaert, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven “In today’s welfare states, poverty remains a largely intractable problem for policy makers and a persistent reality for many citizens. This book critically assesses the potential of social innovation. The book successfully paves the way for different policy paradigms – social protection, social investment and social innovation – to speak to each other. Against the background of the major challenges we face, this is an important, and even necessary, task.” Bea Cantillon, Universiteit Antwerpen "This interdisciplinary volume sheds important new light on the governance challenges facing social innovations in Europe and Brazil. Participatory bottom-up politics empowers excluded citizens, satisfies needs, and improves public programs.” Hilary Silver, Georgetown University and Brown University “Theoretically strong with interesting case studies based on excellent European research.” Enzo Mingione, Università di Milano-Bicocca About the Author Gert Verschraegen is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Antwerp. His research is concerned with numerical governance, Europeanization, science and society, (social) innovation, cultural diversity in cities and the sociology of human rights and asylum. Stijn Oosterlynck is Associate Professor in Urban Sociology at the University of Antwerp. His research is concerned with local social innovation and welfare state restructuring, the political sociology of urban development, urban renewal and community building and new forms of solidarity in diversity. Andreas Novy is associate professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (Austria). He is currently head of the institute of Multi-Level Governance and Development and president of the International Karl Polanyi Society (IKPS). His research focuses on urban development, social innovation and transdisciplinarity. Yuri Kazepov is a professor of International Urban Sociology and Compared Welfare Systems at the University of Vienna (Austria) from March 2015. His fields of interest are urban governance, citizenship and urban quality of life, social policies in comparative perspective.