Navigating the context of welfare regimes undergoing transformation, Social Innovation and Welfare State Retrenchment examines the evidence and questions the capacity of Social Innovation initiatives to tackle social inequalities, especially when it comes to the domain of early childhood education and care.
Since the early 2000s, social innovation has become increasingly relevant in the political and research debates on welfare state transformations. Although most social innovations are citizen-led, some new institution-led initiatives have also emerged. But what are the implications of social innovation for equity and welfare? How does policy learning from social innovation take place in different welfare regime contexts? How can policy be simultaneously responsive to the diversification of needs and to equity and universalisation?
Social Innovation and Welfare State Retrenchment examines these questions by focusing on early childhood education and care (ECEC), where the welfare state has not managed to consolidate universal coverage, where social investment is considered crucial for equal opportunities, and where intersectional influences across different dimensions of inequality, such as education and gender-related issues, are central.
Offering an original research design for studying the institutionalisation process of social innovation in ECEC across a variety of contexts in Europe and beyond, this collection provides evidence of how the interplay between social innovation and policy deeply affects equity and citizens welfare in advanced capitalist economies.
Section I. Introduction
Chapter
1. Social and policy innovation in early childhood education and
care: A comparative perspective; Raquel Gallego, Lara Maestripieri, and
Sheila Gonzįlez Motos
Chapter
2. The role of early childhood education and care in current welfare
regime transformations; Lara Maestripieri, Sheila Gonzįlez Motos, and Raquel
Gallego
Section II. Early childhood education and care: Institutionalisation and
social innovations in Spain and in Barcelona
Chapter
3. The institutional design of early childhood education and care in
Spain and its impact on equal opportunities; David Palomera, Margarita León,
Lucķa Martķnez-Virto, Daniel Gabaldón-Estevan, and Zyab Ibįńez
Chapter
4. Institutionalising social innovation in early childhood education
and care in Barcelona, Spain; Lara Maestripieri and Raquel Gallego
Chapter
5. Exploring the Pathways: Family Decision-Making in Choosing
Institutionalised 0-3 Education and Care in Barcelona, Spain; Enric Saurķ
Saula and Sheila Gonzįlez Motos
Chapter
6. Understanding families motivations for choosing innovative ECEC
in Barcelona, Spain: Comparing social and policy innovation; Raquel Gallego
and Enric Saurķ Saula
Section III. Social innovation in Early Childhood Education and Care from a
Comparative Perspective
Chapter
7. Promises and Limits of Social Innovation in the French Childcare
System; Laurent Fraisse and Francesca Petrella
Chapter
8. Bottom-up cultural dynamics of social innovation in childcare for
infants in Israel: A distinction mechanism and educational activism; Rakefet
Sela-Sheffy, Netta Avnoon, and Revital Weil Gottshalk
Chapter
9. Institutionalised social innovation: The case of Oslo, Norway;
Trine Monica Myrvold and Ellen Os
Chapter
10. Early Childhood Education and Care and Social Innovation in
Venice, Italy: The role of regulation and resources; Maurizio Busacca,
Barbara da Roit, and Pamela Pasian
Chapter
11. Social innovation in early childhood education and care in
England: The case of Portsmouth; Nikki Fairchild and Éva Mikuska
Chapter
12. How the Japanese welfare regime incorporated Mothers' social
innovations in ECEC; Kumiko Hagiwara
Section IV. Conclusions
Chapter
13. Comparing ECEC and social innovation across welfare regimes: Key
lessons to move towards Universalisation; Sheila Gonzįlez Motos, Raquel
Gallego, and Lara Maestripieri
Raquel Gallego Calderón is Full Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at the Department of Political Science and Public Law and Senior Researcher at the Institute of Government and Public Policy (IGOP) at the Universitat Autņnoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain.
Sheila Gonzįlez Motos is Lecturer at the Department of Political Science at the University of Barcelona (UB), Senior Researcher at the Institute of Government and Public Policy (IGOP) and at the Group of Globalisation Education and Social Policies (GEPS) at the Universitat Autņnoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain.
Lara Maestripieri is Ramon y Cajal Distinguished Researcher at the Department of Political Science and Public Law and the Institute of Government and Public Policy (IGOP) at the Universitat Autņnoma de Barcelona (UAB), Spain.
