Local Welfare Systems: A Challenge for Social Cohesion

Abstract

In recent decades, local welfare systems have been emerging in many Western countries as a consequence of bottom–up and top–down transformative pressures. Local welfare systems are defined as dynamic arrangements in which the specific local socioeconomic and cultural conditions give rise to different mixes of formal and informal actors, public or not, involved in the provision of welfare resources. This article presents some of the most important implications related to the emergence of local welfare systems and the challenges they face in seeking to build social cohesion. After a brief description of the reasons that justify a local approach to welfare, an account is provided of the scientific debate on local welfare and an indication given of the possible relations and tensions between the emergence of local welfare systems and the production of social cohesion

Eldercare policies in Scandinavia between 1993 and 2014: Increased facilitation of family caregiving?

“…In Scandinavia, public eldercare services provision is a municipal responsibility, but it is regulated by national governments through national legislation (Andreotti, Mingione, & Polizzi, 2012, p. 1936. Municipal care services are funded mainly through block grants from central government (i.e., grants not earmarked for care services in particular), in addition to local taxes, which are defined within a specific range that is set by central government (Jensen & Lolle, 2013;KMD, 2015;Trydegård & Thorslund, 2010).…”

Social services, welfare states and places: an overview

“…In some countries, it was the 'meso-' tier that was privileged, such as with the establishment of regional governments in Italy or autonomous communities in Spain, but the lower level of government authority, the municipality, township or commune (which in most countries already had responsibilities for social services) was also concerned. This process was partly the result of bottom-up 'regionalist' or 'localist' claims for greater autonomy, but was also fuelled by the EU discourses about 'subsidiarity' and a 'Europe of regions', which sponsored the normative assumption that administrative decentralisation meant greater administrative efficiency and democracy (Andreotti et al, 2012).…”

The Janus face of social innovation in local welfare initiatives

“…The local initiatives under study take place in four municipalities in different European countries and aim to renew social policy practices and services in neighbourhoods or for particular groups of people. Our focus is on the variations in the way social innovation is created and sustained in these local welfare systems, which we define as 'dynamic arrangements in which the specific local socioeconomic and cultural conditions give rise to different mixes of formal and informal actors, public or not, involved in the provision of welfare resources' (Andreotti et al, 2012(Andreotti et al, , p. 1925. As a result, new local combinations of social activities emerge in the welfare diamond (Martinelli, Chapter 1, as well as Leibetseder et al, in this volume), i.e.…”