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In recent years, the term social innovation, or SI, has entered mainstream policy discourse; broadly construed, SI refers to pioneering, effective solutions to social problems that benefit society at large rather than individuals. This book explores the full meaning of SI and what it offers to people analyzing social policy, including the origins and background of the concept, the reasons for its rise to prominence, and the ways it has thus far been applied. Does it actually represent a significant departure in theory or practice, or is it merely a rhetorical change? Simone Baglioni and Stephen Sinclair offer here a rich analysis of the concept that will enable practitioners to reach informed conclusions.
Social innovation has become a prominent theme in discussions of social policy reform across the world. This book examines why social innovation is important to social policy analysis. It discusses the theoretical and policy context of this concept; its origin and background; why it has emerged to prominence in recent years and how it has been applied. The book relates social innovation to key debates and issues in social policy. These include competing agency and structural explanations of and solutions to social problems; the relative efficacy of government and civil society initiatives, and the capacity of community and/or service user-led responses to address social problems. The book will be a valuable resource for a wide, international readership including social and public policy analysts, policy makers, practitioners and students.
Modernizing Democracy brings together scholars focusing the role of associations and associating in contemporary societies. Organizations and associations have been identified as the “meso level of society” and as the “basic elements of democracy”. They are important providers of welfare services and play an important role between the individual and political spheres. In recent years the environment of associations and associating has changed dramatically. Individualization, commercialization and globalization are challenging both democracy and the capability of associations to fulfill the functions attributed to them by social sciences. This change provides the central question of t...
Somalis have been leaving their country for the last fifteen years, fleeing civil war, difficult economic conditions, drought and famine, and now constitute one of the largest diasporas in the world. Organized in the framework of collaboration between UNHCR and different countries, this research focuses on the secondary movements of Somali refugees. It was carried out as a multi-sited project in the following countries: Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, the Netherlands, South Africa, Switzerland and Yemen. The report provides a detailed insight into the movements of Somali refugees that is, their trajectories, the different stages in their migra-tion history and their underlying motivations. It also gives a compara-tive overview of different protection regimes and practices.
Young People and Long-Term Unemployment examines the consequences of long-term unemployment for the personal, social, and political lives of young adults aged 18–34 across four European cities: Cologne (Germany), Geneva (Switzerland), Lyon (France), and Turin (Italy). Adopting a multidimensional theoretical framework aiming to bring together insights based on the contextual (macro), organizational (meso), and individual (micro) levels, and combining quantitative and qualitative data and analyses, it reaches a number of important conclusions. First, our study shows that the experience of long-term unemployment has a negative impact on different dimensions of young people’s lives. When com...
This study describes the profile of the Somali population living in Switzerland, as well as highlights their migration histories and trajectories. The analysis is complemented by a detailed insight into the living conditions and asylum policies in Switzerland and other host countries along the route. The aim of this double-layer analysis (micro and meso levels) is to provide a detailed understanding of the motives that prompt Somali refugees to undertake secondary movements from a first country of asylum in the search of better conditions in another one. This study is part of a wide-ranging, multi-sited project focusing on the secondary movements of Somali refugees in eight countries in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
This book critically presents the mechanisms and structures in a selection of sport federations within a variety of European countries that illuminate the varied relationships between not-for-profit sport federations, their members, governments and the citizens they represent.
Citizens’ Solidarity in Europe systematically dissects the manifestations of solidarity buried beneath the official policies and measures of public authority in Europe. In this exciting and innovative book, contributors offer comprehensive and original data and highlight the detrimental factors that tend to inhibit or annihilate solidarity, and those that are beneficial for the nurturing of solidarity.
This book brings together twelve scholars from various universities and research centres in Europe and Canada. All look at developments in the collective action of marginalised and/or disadvantaged people such as Gypsies, migrants, cleaners, or unemployed people in contemporary West European societies. The authors analyse how these people organise and mobilise within or across countries such as Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, or Italy. They note that although the collective actions of marginalised and/or disadvantaged people are not necessarily unusual, all these nationally based or cross-national mobilisations have in common the fact that many of these people seek...
Looking beyond urban immigration, this ground-breaking book explores how immigrants can become a part of local communities in remote regions. Contributors argue that immigrant integration is place-dependent, and develop new theories, methodologies, and policies that address the specific dynamics of immigration to peripheral areas.