The butterfly and the elephant: local social innovation, the welfare state and new poverty dynamics

"This paper surveys the literature on localized socially innovative policies and actions aimed at overcoming poverty and social exclusion. The authors show how these local forms of social innovation emerged in the late 1970s against the backdrop of the crisis and transformation of the Western w...

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Main Authors: ImPRovE, Antwerp, Oosterlynck, Stijn, Kazepov, Yuri, Novy, Andreas, Cools, Pieter, Barberis, Eduardo, Wukovitsch, Florian, Saruis, Tatiana, Leubolt, Bernhard
Institution:ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
Format: TEXT
Language:English
Published: Antwerp 2013
ImPRovE
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19124109124919423819-The-butterfly-and-the-elephant.htm
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author ImPRovE, Antwerp
Oosterlynck, Stijn
Kazepov, Yuri
Novy, Andreas
Cools, Pieter
Barberis, Eduardo
Wukovitsch, Florian
Saruis, Tatiana
Leubolt, Bernhard
author_facet ImPRovE, Antwerp
Oosterlynck, Stijn
Kazepov, Yuri
Novy, Andreas
Cools, Pieter
Barberis, Eduardo
Wukovitsch, Florian
Saruis, Tatiana
Leubolt, Bernhard
collection Library items
description "This paper surveys the literature on localized socially innovative policies and actions aimed at overcoming poverty and social exclusion. The authors show how these local forms of social innovation emerged in the late 1970s against the backdrop of the crisis and transformation of the Western welfare state, the emergence of new social risks and the transition from the Fordist to the knowledge based economy. The paper aims to learn about new or older but as yet too often overlooked poverty and social exclusion dynamics from the locally embedded and collective responses to it by civil society associations, local state institutions and/or social entrepreneurs. The paper first develops a definition of social innovation as it applies to the fight against poverty and social exclusion. In a second part the authors put social innovation in its historical context by discussing three different strands of social innovation research and practice, namely: (1) social innovation as a critique of the territorial innovation model underlying the knowledge-based economy; (2) social innovation as a critique on the bureaucratic nature of the welfare state; and (3) socially innovative forms of neighbourhood development as a response to the urban crisis. The third section of the paper then zooms in on the process dimensions of social innovation for each of the three strands discussed in the second part. The authors propose the metaphor of ‘the elephant and the butterfly’ to think through the relationship between localized forms of socially innovative actions and initiatives on the one hand and the macro-level institutions of the welfare state and dialectical interplay between state institutions and civil society associations on the other. The paper concludes with a preliminary list of social needs, trends in poverty and the reconfiguration of welfare institutions and policies that are revealed by place-based socially innovative practices."
format TEXT
geographic developed countries
id 19124109124919423819_c26d79736ee14710b32122830449a887
institution ETUI-European Trade Union Institute
is_hierarchy_id 19124109124919423819_c26d79736ee14710b32122830449a887
is_hierarchy_title The butterfly and the elephant: local social innovation, the welfare state and new poverty dynamics
language English
physical 45 p.
Digital
publishDate 2013
publisher Antwerp
ImPRovE
spellingShingle ImPRovE, Antwerp
Oosterlynck, Stijn
Kazepov, Yuri
Novy, Andreas
Cools, Pieter
Barberis, Eduardo
Wukovitsch, Florian
Saruis, Tatiana
Leubolt, Bernhard
innovation
local level
poverty
social policy
welfare state
The butterfly and the elephant: local social innovation, the welfare state and new poverty dynamics
thumbnail https://www.labourline.org/Image_prev.jpg?Archive=100129192830
title The butterfly and the elephant: local social innovation, the welfare state and new poverty dynamics
topic innovation
local level
poverty
social policy
welfare state
url https://www.labourline.org/KENTIKA-19124109124919423819-The-butterfly-and-the-elephant.htm