Social Innovation for Social Cohesion

Co‐production and social innovation in street‐level employability services: Lessons from services with lone parents in Scotland

“…• crucially, co-production with service usersapproaches that invest in users' capabilities and tap their assets, rather than stigmatizing them (Evers and Ewert, 2015); "within service arrangements trusting relationships based on co-production are more likely if the strengths and assets of service users are taken into account and used as a positive foundation that services can build on … enabling users, instead of blaming them for their shortcomings" (Ewert and Evers, 2014, p. 427). Ewert and Evers's (2014) emphasis on the value of co-production as a key concept in building more responsive and innovative employability services connects with a growing evidence base on "what works" in street-level practice to support people with complex needs to escape poverty and/or progress in the labour market (Lindsay et al, forthcoming).…”

“…And these things have been put in place as a result of that, so I feel quite confident. (MIW Keyworker, South Lanarkshire, 2015) The co-management of collaborative street-level services in this case appears to have delivered the sort of provision sought by policy-makers promoting social innovationthese services combined knowledge and resources from different stakeholders to build effective, collaborative ways of working and were flexible enough to respond to the changing situations and aspirations of service users (Evers and Ewert, 2015).…”

University contributions to the 21st century challenges through social innovation: a case study from Brazil

“…1 Sundbo (2015) argues the concept of innovation has recently been, brought out of the marketeconomic scope, with an increased emphasis on understanding innovation processes that occur outside the technological-economic sphere. Evers and Ewert (2015) define social innovation in terms of "both products and processes, namely new ideas translated into practical approaches that were also new in the context where they appeared" (p. 108). Cajaiba-Santana (2014) defines social innovation as "new social practices created from collective, intentional, and goal-oriented actions aimed at prompting social change through the reconfiguration of how social goals are accomplished" (p. 44).…”

“…The social innovation described in this paper can be regarded as innovation in educational services and how it can address users' needs by investing in capacitybuilding, avoiding stigmatisation, improving peoples skills, and bridging the gap between professional services and people's lives (Evers & Ewert, 2015).…”

“…According to Nicholls and Dees (2015), these problems are characterised by divergent analyses and diagnoses highlighting the failure of conventional solutions and established paradigms across private, public and societal sectors. Therefore, given these important societal challenges and reflecting political and social systems in different countries, scholars, entrepreneurs and civil society agents have called for new approaches with a particular emphasis on the role of social innovation (Evers & Ewert, 2015). These grand challenges represent a new class of contemporary problem not solvable exclusively via more economic growth.…”