Tackling Social Exclusion through Social
Innovation:
Strategy Research Options
Policy implications of KATARSIS, an EU-funded research
project involving 20 institutions coordinated by the Global
Urban Research Unit, Newcastle University, UK.
October 2009
INTRODUCTION
An inclusive Europe:
how social innovation
research can help
Building a more inclusive Europe is vital to achieving the EU's
goals of sustained growth, more and better jobs and greater
social cohesion. At a time when inequality and exclusion are
on the increase, they must be tackled through evidence-based
action. So research is needed into current responses and their
effectiveness.
The Social Inclusion Process established by EU leaders in
2000 has encouraged Member States to exchange best practice
and create a stronger basis for policy-making. Emphasis has
been placed on involving a wide range of social inclusion
actors, not least those who are experiencing poverty and those
who are working with them. The KATARSIS project analyses the
socially creative strategies (SCS) through which people,
both individually and collectively, react to conditions of
economic, social and political exclusion – or “social
exclusion” for short. SCS often use knowledge and resources in
ways that trigger social innovation and effectively promote
inclusion, empowerment and socio-economic development. So
they open up new avenues for policy design and
implementation. KATARSIS is also helping to identify the best
methods for researching into SCS. And it provides a platform
for research teams to exchange knowledge and work towards
better integration of research programmes and strategies.
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KEY OBSERVATIONS
Lessons drawn from KATARSIS surveys of the literature on
social exclusion and on socially creative strategies (SCS) to
counter exclusion.
The labour market,
employment strategies and
the social economy
Employment in a whole range of socially creative sectors is
key to combating exclusion.
SCS for job creation may concern the public, for-profit and
non-profit sectors, as well as the family and community
economies, or else more typically the social economy
(cooperatives, mutualities and associations). In either case,
they should be fostered as they have the potential to meet
unmet needs and promote emancipation.
The success of these SCS is highly dependent on spatial
and historical context, so best practices are not necessarily
transferable.
Reliance on the non-profit sector or the social economy may
also sometimes take on a regressive character, when it is
associated with the rolling back of the welfare state or when
institutional leverage fails.
To promote SCS in the employment sphere, public policy
should enable individual and collective actors to build
networks, access resources in a sustainable manner and
promote diversity of opportunity.
Education and training
Three key types of exclusion are identified: exclusion from
access to education, from the process of education and from
the outcome of education.
SCS can challenge the dominant neo-liberal rationale within
the education system, thus facilitating accessibility, social
integration, the reflection of diversity, the meeting of present-
day social needs, linkage with the labour market, interaction
and new forms of learning.
The SCS concerned are of three types:
-
Those aiming to adapt excluded groups to the
dominant rationale
-
Those that mix activities which are adaptive to
the dominant rationale and activities which
conflict with it
-
Those that give visibility and relevance to the
socially creative values and experiences of
different non-dominant social groups, and
acknowledge their participation.
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The outcomes of Type 1 SCS show that a macro-level
approach does not prevent educational exclusion. Type 2
SCS entail committed partnership with local authorities and
social services, associations with the private sector and
mainly local-level funding. Type 3 SCS work in two
directions at the same time: enhancing cultural diversity and
promoting social inclusion in forms of governance, e.g. by
creating more customised education and training institutions.
Researchers adopt different methods for analysing the three
types of SCS: evidence-based research for Type 1; a wide
range of methods for Type 2, but principally the neo-
positivist approach; and mainly participatory action research
for Type 3.
Successful educational SCS tend to:
-
be well integrated into the local community, as
regards both financing and content
-
include some element of adaptation to the
dominant rationale and the labour market.
KATARSIS expresses a preference for educational SCS that
aim at integrating the alternative values of the excluded groups
within a more open education system.
Housing and neighbourhood
Exclusion
from housing includes homelessness,
overcrowding and living in accommodation which is in
disrepair or has inadequate facilities. This form of exclusion
may involve discrimination as regards entitlement or on
grounds such as ethnicity, as well as such processes as
gentrification or housing privatisation.
Exclusion through housing arises from social polarisation
between neighbourhoods, the concentration of
disadvantages and poor access to transport, opportunities
and services.
These issues provide great scope for mobilising SCS – e.g.
through housing cooperatives and the development of
grassroots neighbourhood organisations. NGOs, even if
large and formal rather than “bottom-up”, also often play a
major innovative role here.
Cut-backs in the State's direct role have left space for more
creativity by NGOs and communities, but most of the case
studies suggest that bottom-up creativity needs institutional
support from a strong welfare state network.
Health and environment
By focussing on the local level, innovative SCS were
revealed that address health and environmental inequalities
and promote well-being.
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In particular, good practices in social innovation were noted
in:
-
networks promoting the growing, trading and
consumption of local food
-
networks challenging transport policy and
producing innovative design solutions to traffic
problems and the use of public space.
A typology of socially creative strategies was developed,
placing research results in four main categories:
-
social movements that organise protests across
Europe to challenge the dominance of cars and
increase pedestrians' and cyclists' access to
public space
-
community organisations that work in less
contentious ways than the protest movements
and focus on the neighbourhood
-
socially creative individuals, whose ideas have
been taken up by social movements and local
authorities
-
social innovation by local authorities, often
inspired by Local Agenda 21 (local
implementation of the UN's sustainable
development agenda).
Governance and democracy
Policy-making should aim to foster democracy as regards
both the inclusion of disadvantaged groups in decision-
making and their access to social services, via universal
social, economic and civic rights.
Many new governance arrangements are ambiguous. Along
with the potential benefits of increased participation, current
transformations have led to privatisation, liberalisation, the
promotion of private-public partnerships and an emphasis on
managerial governance practice. So short-term cost
efficiency is often achieved at the expense of long-term
efficacy and democracy.
Bottom-up initiatives risk being caught in the “localist trap”.
The most successful ones aim at “scale-jumping” (moving up
into a broader context).
The welfare state continues to exist in various new forms,
with uneven participation by the “clients” and the
concentration of power in the hands of the primary elite
actors. Bottom-up participation can be a step towards socio-
economic democratisation of the welfare state, but does also
involve the risk that social movements may be co-opted by
the state.
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Main KATARSIS outputs
What KATARSIS has
provided
An overview of the different entry points that have led to
social innovation initiatives and processes.
An examination of the possibility and desirability of putting
forward an overarching methodological approach to social
innovation inquiries and designs.
An assessment of research methods on social innovation.
A shared language for social innovation research.
An understanding of the policy relevance and dynamics of
artistic and creative bottom-up initiatives.
A complementary and multi-agent approach to combating
social exclusion, centred on the arts.
Better models of communication and coordination among
various types of actor (researchers, policy-makers,
practioners), especially through relevant interactive methods
that give citizens a voice.
Links among actors involved in this field from different
backgrounds, places and contexts in the EU.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Key KATARSIS conclusions
about creativity
Arts and culture should be seen as a key element in urban
and local policies, making innovative initiatives effective and
sustainable.
The “effectiveness” of local, socially embedded cultural and
artistic projects should be judged on a broad range of
inclusion criteria.
Socially creative bottom-up strategies are usually not
sustainable without strong institutional support and leverage.
So a balance has to be struck between regulation and
support on the one hand and room for creativity on the other.
Thus, it is better to promote “bottom-linked” rather than
“bottom-up” activities.
Short-term action
Make existing local SCS (socially creative strategies to
combat social exclusion) visible to the European research
and policy community.
Network and connect research on SCS at the local,
regional and national levels.
Create a common theoretical and methodological
framework for analysing SCS.
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Draw lessons from these socially creative initiatives and
realise their potential transferability.
Long-term action
Establish a more encompassing European research and
training network on SCS.
Develop joint research projects at various levels (local,
regional, national and European).
Influence national research programmes by building
national research networks on SCS.
Capitalise on “locally funded” research programmes and
strengthen them through the use of a shared European
theoretical and methodological framework.
Contribute to the development of cooperation networks
between local SCS actors across Europe, preferably in the
form of sustainable Social Platforms.
Help shape the European social, regional, education,
training and youth policy agendas by drawing lessons from
local SCS about how to overcome social exclusion.
Research methods
Research on SCS against social exclusion requires methods
that meet all of the following criteria: identification and
understanding of the roles of all the actors involved, the social
and cultural relations of which they are part, the agendas for
change that they pursue, and institutional dynamics that support
or hamper their actions. So the following methodological
perspectives must be combined:
Sociology of knowledge and practice together with action
research in order to understand the institutional and socio-
cultural context and changes within which the actors operate
Transdisciplinary analysis of the roles of different types of
SCS actor and guarantees of their involvement in the
research activity itself
Reflexivity
and post-structuralist approaches to
understanding the creativity of actors in the search for social
innovation within a complex socio-cultural world.
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RESEARCH PARAMETERS
Specialised research teams are studying the consequences
of growing inequality and social exclusion, as well as
socially creative strategies (SCS) for overcoming them.
KATARSIS provides these researchers with a platform for
exchanging their knowledge and working towards a better
integration of their research programmes and
methodologies.
Objectives
To provide an up-to-date review of the specific
consequences of growing inequality in Europe and the
innovative and/or creative ways in which groups particularly
hard-hit by exclusion have responded.
To examine how those consequences have been
researched.
To review attempts to integrate various approaches into
the analysis of socially creative strategies (SCS) aimed
at overcoming social exclusion, and to link this overview to
broader debates about social science methodologies.
To develop new methods for analysing SCS and for
coordinating ongoing research in this field. This
methodology will later be used to guide a wider scientific
discussion of both the policy and the practice of SCS.
Methodology
Survey of the literature on social exclusion and SCS in five
fields:
-
the labour market, employment strategies and the
social economy
-
education and training
-
housing and neighbourhoods
-
health and the environment
-
governance and democracy.
With the aim of integrating policy and collective action
approaches, surveys on three aspects of SCS:
-
bottom-up creativity
-
governance
-
social innovation.
Development of methodologies for researching into the
organisation and impact of socially innovative initiatives.
Dissemination of the outcomes, notably to practitioners
and policy-makers in the field of social inclusion,
empowerment and participation.
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PROJECT IDENTITY
Coordinator
Frank Moulaert in collaboration with Jean Hillier, Newcastle
University UK.
Consortium
Milan
Dept. of Sociology and Social Research, Milan-Bicocca University
Serena Vicari,
serena.vicari@unimib.it
Bristol
Centre for Public Health Research, University of West England
Judy Orme,
Judy.Orme@uwe.ac.uk
Berlin
Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Stadt- und Regionalsoziologie,
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Hartmut Häussermann,
hartmut.haeussermann@sowi.hu-berlin.de
Lisbon
Centro de Estudos Geográficos, Universidade de Lisboa
Isabel André,
isabelandre@fl.ul.pt
Vienna
Institute for Economic Geography, Regional Development and
Environmental Management, Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien
Andreas Novy,
andreas.novy@wu.wien.ac.at
Barcelona
Research Centre on Citizenship and Civil Society, Universitat de
Barcelona
Marisol García,
MarisolGarcia@ub.edu
Utrecht
Stichting Dr. Hilda Verwey-Jonker Instituut, Utrecht
Hugo Swinnen,
H.Swinnen@verwey-jonker.nl
Bas Tierolf,
BTierolf@verwey-jonker.nl
Brno
Institute for Social Issues, Masaryk University
Tomas Sirovatka,
Sirovatka@fss.muni.cz
Athens
Dept. of Urban and Regional Planning, National Technical University of
Athens
Dina Vaiou,
DiVaiou@central.ntua.gr
Lille
IFRESI-CNRS, Délégation Nord Pas de Calais Picardie, Lille
Abdellilah.Hamdouch,
Abdel.Hamdouch@univ-lille1.fr
Cardiff
Wales Institute for Research into Co-operatives, University of Wales
Institute, Cardiff
Len Arthur
LArthur@uwic.ac.uk
Charleroi
CERISIS, Université Catholique de Louvain, Charleroi
Marthe Nyssens,
Nyssens@ires.ucl.ac.be
Montreal
CRISES, Université du Québec à Montréal
Juan-Luis Klein,
Klein.Juan-Luis@uqam.ca
Ghent
Rijksuniversiteit Gent, Centre for Intercultural Communication and
Action
Hendrik Pinxten,
Hendrik.Pinxten@UGent.be
Ine Pisters,
inepisters@hotmail.com
Rome
Abaton S.r.l., Rome
Matteo Scaramella,
ms@abatonmail.it
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Budapest
Corvinus University, Budapest
János Ladányi,
Janos.Ladanyi@bkae.hu
Roskilde
Centre for Urban Studies, Roskilde University
John Andersen,
JohnA@ruc.dk
Paris
Centre de recherche et d'information sur la démocratie et l'autonomie,
Paris
Jean-Louis Laville,
Laville@iresco.fr
Laurent Fraisse,
laurent.fraisse@lise.cnrs.fr
European Commission
DG Research Project Officer: Pia Laurila,
(Pia.Laurila@ec.europa.eu)
Duration
May 2006 – December 2009
Funding scheme
6th Framework Programme,
Priority 7, Citizens and governance
in a knowledge-based society, Coordination Action
EC contribution
€ 767220
Website
http://katarsis.ncl.ac.uk
For more information
Contact Frank Moulaert (
Frank.Moulaert@ncl.ac.uk
)
Further reading
Research papers and work-package reports are available at
http://katarsis.ncl.ac.uk
Document Outline - INTRODUCTION
- KEY OBSERVATIONS
- Main KATARSIS outputs
- RECOMMENDATIONS
- RESEARCH PARAMETERS
- PROJECT IDENTITY
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