Social Innovation, Local Governance and Social Quality: The Case of Intersectoral Collaboration in Hangzhou City

Summary Intersectoral action is advocated as a social practice that can effectively address health inequalities and related social issues. Existing knowledge provides insight into factors that may facilitate or hinder successful intersectoral action, but not much is known about how intersectoral action evolves and becomes embedded in local health policies. This is where this study aims to make its contribution, by adopting the multilevel perspective on transitions, which is increasingly used to study social innovation in sustainability transitions but has not yet been applied to public health and health promotion. Through this perspective, it was unravelled how intersectoral action between youth-care organizations and community sports clubs became embedded in local health policies of Rotterdam, a large city in the Netherlands. A single explorative case study was conducted based on content analysis of policy documents and 15 in-depth interviews with policy officers, managers and field workers operating in the fields of youth and sports in Rotterdam. The findings showed that intersectoral action between community organizations and policymakers evolves through congruent processes at different levels that changed institutional logics. Moreover, it emerged that policymakers and other actors that advocate novel social practices and act as boundary spanners can adopt multiple strategies to embed these practices in local health policy. The multi-level perspective adds value to earlier approaches to research intersectoral collaboration for health promotion as it allows to better capture the politics involved in the social innovation processes. However, further sharpening and more comprehensive application of transition concepts to study transitions in public health and health promotion is needed.

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Contexts, Mechanisms, and Outcomes That Matter in Dutch Community-Based Physical Activity Programs Targeting Socially Vulnerable Groups

Evaluation & the Health Professions ◽

10.1177/0163278716652940 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 40 (3) ◽

pp. 294-331 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Marion Herens ◽

Annemarie Wagemakers ◽

Lenneke Vaandrager ◽

Johan van Ophem ◽

Maria Koelen

Keyword(s):

Physical Activity ◽

Local Governance ◽

Community Outreach ◽

Vulnerable Groups ◽

Outreach Program ◽

Intersectoral Collaboration ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Community Based ◽

Physical Activity Programs ◽

Socially Vulnerable Groups

This article presents a practitioner-based approach to identify key combinations of contextual factors (C) and mechanisms (M) that trigger outcomes (O) in Dutch community-based health-enhancing physical activity (CBHEPA) programs targeting socially vulnerable groups. Data were collected in six programs using semi-structured interviews and focus groups using a timeline technique. Sessions were recorded, anonymized, and transcribed. A realist synthesis protocol was used for data-driven and thematic analysis of CMO configurations. CMO configurations related to community outreach, program sustainability, intersectoral collaboration, and enhancing participants’ active lifestyles. We have refined the CBHEPA program theory by showing that actors’ passion for, and past experiences with, physical activity programs trigger outcomes, alongside their commitment to socially vulnerable target groups. Project discontinuity, limited access to resources, and a trainer’s stand-alone position were negative configurations. The authors conclude that local governance structures appear often to lack adaptive capacity to accommodate multilevel processes to sustain programs.

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A participatory local governance approach to social innovation: A case study of Seongbuk-gu, South Korea

Environment and Planning C Politics and Space ◽

10.1177/23996544211005784 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 239965442110057

Author(s):

Sangmin Kim

Keyword(s):

South Korea ◽

Process Model ◽

Social Innovation ◽

Local Governance ◽

Local Level ◽

Governance Structure ◽

Analytical Framework ◽

Theory And Practice ◽

Governance System

As the concept of social innovation gains increasing credence in the public consciousness, a number of questions have become increasingly prominent in the relevant discourse: what does social innovation mean at the local level? How can social innovation be promoted? In particular, what kinds of social and institutional arrangements are needed to facilitate socially innovative activities and practices in neighborhoods and communities? To address these questions, this paper first outlines the related theories and literature as an overview of the notion of social innovation. Next, to provide an example of a promising approach to social innovation at the local level, the paper develops a theoretical discussion on the interface between local social innovation and participatory local governance arrangements, and proposes a process model of local social innovation as an analytical framework for a case study of a district-level initiative in Seongbuk-gu in Seoul, South Korea. By examining the governance structure and socially innovative strategies utilized in this locality, the case study demonstrates how the local participatory governance system can furnish an enabling environment for socially innovative ideas and strategies. Lastly, along with a look at some of the unique aspects of the case, the paper discusses contributions of this study to the theory and practice of social innovation, along with implications for other cases that may consider the governance approach to social innovation.

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Hosting Asylum-Seekers and People Transiting through Milan as an Opportunity for Social Innovation

Refugee Survey Quarterly ◽

10.1093/rsq/hdaa006 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 39 (3) ◽

pp. 363-380

Author(s):

Giuliana Costa

Keyword(s):

Social Workers ◽

Asylum Seekers ◽

Social Innovation ◽

Local Governance ◽

Local Level ◽

Forced Migration ◽

Welfare Policies ◽

Unique Approach ◽

In Transit ◽

Asylum Seekers And Refugees

Abstract The State is responsible for hosting and protecting asylum-seekers and refugees, while policies and programmes are, instead, implemented at the local level. Local governance of forced migration can either reinforce exclusionist drivers imposed by national laws or effectively shape them through innovative practices, at times overcoming what is perceived as inadequate legislation, to manage the issue inclusively. This article describes Milan’s asylum-seekers and migrants in transit hosting system in 2014–2016 and discusses the extent to which the experience constituted an opportunity for social innovation in local welfare policies. Giving asylum-seekers sanctuary and dealing with the high and rapid inflow of people in transit created a unique approach (for Italy) that is still under-researched, unlike that of cities such as Amsterdam and Barcelona. The components of the “Milan Model” are identified, contextualised, and scrutinised by 46 interviews with key informants, including executives of Milan Municipality, managers of the city’s hosting facilities, social workers, journalists, Italian scholars, national and local social movement leaders, and volunteers and representatives of nationally coordinated associations.

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Precaution and Innovation in the Context of Wastewater Regulation: An Examination of Financial Innovation under UWWTD Disputes in London and Milan

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13169130 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (16) ◽

pp. 9130

Author(s):

Fritz-Julius Grafe ◽

Harald A. Mieg

Keyword(s):

Precautionary Principle ◽

Social Innovation ◽

Local Governance ◽

Waste Water Treatment ◽

Financial Innovation ◽

Successful Implementation ◽

Urban Water ◽

Water Infrastructure ◽

The Precautionary Principle ◽

Infrastructure Provision

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) under the guidance of the precautionary principle sets out standards to guarantee high quality water services for European citizens. This creates pressure on European cities to update and renew their water infrastructures in accordance with EU Law at great financial cost. Cities within the Union try to bridge this financial gap with a variety of approaches. This paper presents the cases of London and Milan, both of which were subject to legal proceedings for breaching the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive. By example of these two cases, this article details how the precautionary principle affects urban water infrastructure provision, and how the regulation of the primary risk of pollution can both trigger innovation and create secondary risks within the highly integrated urban water infrastructure sector. The London case focusses on an individual infrastructure project and shows how its financial framing has compromised the final outcome, while the Milan case presents a longer-view perspective that shows how structural changes in the urban water infrastructure sector have enabled an environment for sustainable financial innovation. The role of transparency and good local governance practices are emphasized for a successful implementation of the precautionary principle requirements in a city’s water sector. Managing this process effectively can result in meaningful social innovation for urban water infrastructure provision.

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Participatory Budgeting: A Comparative Study of Croatia, Poland and Slovakia

NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy ◽

10.1515/nispa-2016-0002 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 31-56 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Jasmina Džinić ◽

Mária Murray Svidroňová ◽

Ewa Markowska-Bzducha

Keyword(s):

Public Management ◽

Consumer Satisfaction ◽

New Public Management ◽

Social Innovation ◽

Local Governance ◽

Quality Of Services ◽

Participatory Budgeting ◽

New Public ◽

Additional Costs

Abstract The New Public Management movement regards citizens as customers and, accordingly, focuses on the quality of services provided by public-sector organizations. Since this approach negatively affected democratic values, there has been a shift of the focus from consumer satisfaction and quality of services to quality of governance. The latter implies the improvement of the relationship between government and citizens as active members of the community. Over the last twenty years, participatory budgeting (PB) has become a popular form of co-production intended to improve the quality of local governance. The aim of the article is to provide a comparative analysis of the use and role of PB in Croatia, Poland and Slovakia and to identify the models of PB used in selected countries. In order to compare the case studies of municipalities in selected countries, a qualitative analysis has been used and the classification of PB models applied. Most analyzed local units use the “Porto Alegre adapted for Europe” model, but the “Consultation on public finances”, “Representation of Organized Interest” and “Proximity participation” models are also represented. The main findings are that PB indeed enables better allocation of public sources according to citizens’ needs (various public services were delivered following the trend of social innovation and co-creation), but the problem lies in the low amount assigned for PB from public budgets and the relatively low interest of citizens to participate in the PB processes. PB might also bring certain risks linked with its implementation, e.g. misuse of the idea for political reasons or additional costs of projects delivered in the PB process.

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