Empowering People, Driving Change: Social Innovation in the European Union Acknowledgements
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NJ-79-11-114-EN- C T E G R BARRIERSCHALLENGES MICROFINANCE A T IO Y N ALIT DE EQU VEL USION OPMENT CL SM AR EX T TO OLS ST S ION AIN M AB A SOCIAL AT ILI RT TY EDUC HEALTH Y GREEN N S IO O T MMUNIT Empowering CIA VA CLIM L INNO AT CO USIVE GROW E CHANGE INCL SOCIAL people, I M TH P RO V ENTREPRENEURSHIP JOBS E driving change W RO ELLBEING P XI MI GROW FA TY ARE IR TR Social Innovation WELF ADE TH in the European Union doi:10.2796/13155 HOW TO OBTAIN EU PUBLICATIONS Free publications: • via EU Bookshop (http://bookshop.europa.eu); • at the European Union’s representations or delegations. You can obtain their contact details on the Internet (http://ec.europa.eu) or by sending a fax to +352 2929-42758. Priced publications: • via EU Bookshop (http://bookshop.europa.eu). 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Printed in France PRINTED ON WHITE CHLORINE-FREE PAPER Empowering people, driving change: Social innovation in the European Union Acknowledgements This report has been steered by Agnès Hubert, of the Bureau of European Policy Advisers, under the supervision of Jean-Claude Thébault and Margaritis Schinas and with the assistance of Matteo Bonifacio and Joep Konings. A number of Commission officials from various policy departments also contributed to this report: Henriette Van Eijl, Pierre Valette, Gerhard Braeunling, Pia Laurila, Loris Di Pietrantonio, Apostolos Ioakimidis, Nivelin Noev, Angelos Agalianos, Mark Cropper, Liesbet De Letter, Peter Droell, Wojcieh Dziworski, Pierre Godin, Philippe Hatt, Maria Iglesia-Gomez, Mikel Landabaso-Alvarez, Antoine Saint-Denis and Anna-Maria Sansoni. BEPA would also like to thank Graça Carvalho and Frederic Lerais as well as all the participants at the BEPA workshop of 19 and 20 January 2009 on Social innovation, in particular the late Diogo Vasconcelos and Geoff Mulgan. The Study on social innovation that they produced with the team of the Young Foundation and the Social Innovation eXchange has been extremely useful and should be read in conjunction with this report. Finally, we are grateful to Julian Legrand, Marjorie Jouen, Graham Meadows and Antonella Noya for their help and comments on the drafts, and to Isabelle Dro and Aurélie Therace for editing the report. Disclaimer The analysis contained in this report is personal to the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. Empowering people, driving change: Social innovation in the European Union May 2010 Table of contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................... 14 2. Policy background .............................................................................. 18 3. Why social innovation? ....................................................................... 21 3.1. Pressing social/societal demands and societal challenges ..........................21 3.2. New responses are needed in a time of major budgetary constraints ......................................................................................23 3.3. Traditional solutions are often inadequate .......................................................24 3.3.1. The market ..................................................................................................24 3.3.2. The public sector ..........................................................................................25 3.3.3. Civil society ..................................................................................................26 3.4. Social challenges are also opportunities .........................................................27 The need for social innovation in a nutshell ..................................................................30 4. Defining social innovation ................................................................... 31 4.1. Theoretical background ....................................................................................31 4.2. Definitions of social innovation ..........................................................................33 4.2.1. The process dimension of social innovation ................................................35 4.3. Three complementary approaches to the social dimension of social innovation .......................................................................36 4.3.1. The social demand perspective: Approach 1 ...............................................36 4.3.2. The societal challenge perspective: Approach 2..........................................37 4.3.3. The systemic changes perspective: Approach 3..........................................38 4.4. Risks associated with the concept, and what social innovation is not ...........................................................................40 4.5. A working definition ...........................................................................................42 4.6. Examples of social innovation by approach ..................................................43 4.6.1. Providing solutions to pressing social needs ..............................................44 4.6.2. Addressing societal and environmental challenges ....................................47 4.6.3. Creating systemic change ............................................................................50 European Charter for gender equality in local life .................................................52 4 5. Further characteristics and current debates ..................................... 53 5.1. The process of social innovation .......................................................................53 5.2. The production of social innovation ..................................................................55 5.3. Innovative or social v/s social innovation ........................................................56 5.4. Core levers to produce change ........................................................................57 5.5. The sources of social innovations ......................................................................59 6. How the European Commission supports social innovation ........... 63 6.1. Dominant policy framework .............................................................................63 6.2. Main programmes and supporting schemes ..................................................70 6.2.1. The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) to promote regional cohesion ......................................................................70 6.2.2. The European Social Fund (ESF) ...............................................................71 6.2.3. Learning from one another: the key to the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) .........................................................73 6.2.4. The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD)..............73 6.2.5. The Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development (FP RTD) ......................................................................................................75 6.2.6. The Lifelong Learning Programme and other education and culture programmes ....................................................77 6.2.7. The Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) ......................................................................78 6.3. Initiatives and instruments .................................................................................81 6.3.1. Knowledge-sharing and dissemination ........................................................81 6.3.2. Participative processes for stakeholders in the preparation and implementation of policies ............................................................................83 6.3.3. Policy coordination and capacity building ....................................................85 6.3.4. Supporting studies, research and evidence of good practice for policy planning and policy development and for advancing knowledge on social innovaion .......................................................................................................88 6.3.5. Support of social experiments ......................................................................91 6.3.6. Support of social entrepreneurs and enterprises ..........................................93 6.3.7. Infrastructure and enabling factors ...............................................................95 6.4. Achievements .....................................................................................................96 6.5. Final remarks ......................................................................................................100 7. Barriers and challenges to social innovation .................................. 102 7.1. Barriers from the perspective