Implementing Innovative Social Investment: Strategic Lessons from Europe

Introduction and conclusion available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence.

The turn towards a Social Investment approach to welfare implies deploying resources to enhance human capital and mobilise the productive potential of citizens, starting in early childhood.

This edited collection brings regional and local realities to the forefront of social investment debates by showcasing successes, challenges and setbacks of Social Investment policies and services from ten European countries: Italy, UK, Sweden, Finland, Greece, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Spain. It provides practical, accessible illustrations of good practice, routes to success, and lessons learned. The book is informed throughout by engagement with service users and local communities, and features many previously unheard voices including front-line workers, local decision makers, volunteers and beneficiaries.

Christopher O’Leary is Senior Lecturer in the Policy Evaluation and Research Unit at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Manchester Met University

Inga Narbutaité Aflaki is Senior Lecturer in Political Science at Karlstad University.

Susan Baines (156-2023) was Professor of Social Enterprise at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research spanned social policy, innovation, enterprise and civil society, and she published extensively on these themes.

Andrea Bassi is Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Bologna. His research interests include studies on non-profit organizations in the field of social and health services, systems of measurement of organizational performance and social impact of non-profit organizations.