Social Innovation As a Challenge for Urban Governance Policies. Analysing Local Administrations' Approaches and Their Inclusive Policies.

Abstract: To look at cities as local systems is a useful way to understand the localised nature of social innovation dynamics. As previous research has shown, social innovation is featured by the particularities of multilevel governance dynamics in each particular context. The role of public and private actors in the provision of policies and the historical role of social movements and civil society is key to understand the emergence of socially innovative initiatives to tackle social exclusion. In this paper we analyse how the interplay between urban governance, economic development and welfare policies influence the production of social innovation. Specifically we analyse institutional arrangements on employment and citizenship participation policies as contexts for social innovation in four different spanish cities: Barcelona, Zaragoza, Bilbao and Madrid. The comparison wants to shed light on the emergence of different repertories of socially innovative practices and its relation with local administration. Based on insights derived from fieldwork developed in the framework of INOSOGO research project, this paper shows how local models of governance define and influence the development and shaping of socially innovative initiatives and how these initiatives engage with local administration.