Full Description
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.
Contents
Section I. Introduction
Chapter 1. Social and policy innovation in early childhood education and care: A comparative perspective; Raquel Gallego, Lara Maestripieri, and Sheila González Motos
Chapter 2. The role of early childhood education and care in current welfare regime transformations; Lara Maestripieri, Sheila González 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, Lucía Martínez-Virto, Daniel Gabaldón-Estevan, and Zyab Ibáñez
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 Saurí Saula and Sheila González Motos
Chapter 6. Understanding families' motivations for choosing innovative ECEC in Barcelona, Spain: Comparing social and policy innovation; Raquel Gallego and Enric Saurí 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 González Motos, Raquel Gallego, and Lara Maestripieri
