Innovative approaches and instruments in the fields of urban revitalization, childcare and work integration I. Service innovations Investing in capabilities rather than spotting deficits The Second Chance School of Nantes (Nantes /France), Her second chance (Varaždin/Croatia), The Future Melting Pot (Birmingham/UK), work corporations (Nijmegen/Netherlands), neighbourhood companies (Amsterdam/Netherlands), Neighbourhood or Constituency Employment and Skills Plans (Birmingham/UK),…
Brescia
Local background of the social innovations Brescia is a middle-sized city situated in the east of the Lombardy region, with 189,085 inhabitants1. It is the main town of one of the twelve provinces of the region and the second largest municipality in the region by population. The metropolitan area counts around 500,000 inhabitants, and the…
Nantes
Local background of the social innovations Emergence of local proactive welfare policies: As far as housing and child care policies are concerned, multi-level governance is the predominant situation with more or less shared responsibilities between national and local governments. It introduces complex institutional relations and potential tensions on issues such as priorities on the agenda…
Amsterdam
Local background of the social innovations In the Netherlands, it is often said how Amsterdam is “arrogant” and always wants to do things in its own way, and indeed, it is a city that is keen on having its own particularities. Internationally renowned as an open-minded, tolerant and progressive capital, Amsterdam also strives to uphold…
Milan
Local background of the social innovations Milan is the capital city of the Lombardy region. The economic and financial capital of Italy, it is a rich and economically dynamic context (see Costa and Sabatinelli 2012). One of the vertexes of the former industrial triangle with Gène and Turin in the Fordist era, it was one…
Bern
Local background of the social innovations Bern is trying to identity itself as a social and innovative city. Although it is the capital, Bern is only the fourth largest city in Switzerland. The head trio is Zurich, often identified as the financial capital, Geneva known for its banks and its numerous international organisation, and Basel,…
Geneva
Local background of the social innovations In Switzerland, there is not only a large sharing of competencies between the communal, cantonal and the federal levels, but also local authorities (and in particular city governments) and cantons develop their own social policies in many areas. For instance, social assistance is a compulsory task, imposed by the…
Dover
Local background of the social innovations Public and professional debates about growth and regeneration Across all the examples of social innovation presented here, a consensus emerged among officials and policymakers about the importance of economic growth to Dover District Council (DDC) and the importance of the Council to the growth agenda. The key word used…
Birmingham
Local background of the social innovations Birmingham is located within the West Midlands region of England and is the regional centre for business, retail and leisure. It is the largest city in the UK outside London and has a population of just over one million inhabitants. Much of Birmingham suffers from high levels of deprivation.…
Malmö
Local background of the social innovations It cannot be claimed that social innovation is a widespread notion or term in the Swedish context. Innovations are still very much related to the launching of new products, inventions and technical development. Welfare development has, by tradition, not been considered as innovative (Rønning et al. 2013). Innovation has…