Local Social Innovation to Combat Poverty and Exclusion: A Critical Appraisal

Based on more than 30 case studies in eight different countries, this book explores the governance dynamics of local social innovations in the field of poverty reduction. The diverse team of contributors reflects on the trajectory of social innovation in European governance. They illustrate how different governance dynamics and welfare mixes enable or hinder poverty reduction strategies and analyse how such dynamics involve a diversity of actors, instruments and resources at different spatial scales. The contributions are based on research motivated by the standstill in the fight against poverty in Europe and the anxiety that conventional macro-social policies are insufficient to deal with the current challenges.

Gert Verschraegen is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Antwerp. His research is concerned with numerical governance, Europeanization, science and society, (social) innovation, cultural diversity in cities and the sociology of human rights and asylum.

Stijn Oosterlynck is Associate Professor in Urban Sociology at the University of Antwerp. His research is concerned with local social innovation and welfare state restructuring, the political sociology of urban development, urban renewal and community building and new forms of solidarity in diversity.

Andreas Novy is associate professor at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (Austria). He is currently head of the institute of Multi-Level Governance and Development and president of the International Karl Polanyi Society (IKPS). His research focuses on urban development, social innovation and transdisciplinarity.

Yuri Kazepov is a professor of International Urban Sociology and Compared Welfare Systems at the University of Vienna (Austria) from March 2015. His fields of interest are urban governance, citizenship and urban quality of life, social policies in comparative perspective.