From Inclusive Cooperatives to the Promotion of “Maker’s” Culture: Initiatives Aiming at Democratic Innovation and Co-Production of Social Policies in Bilbao.

Bilbao can be analysed as an example of bottom-linked governance in which the response to global challenges related with social inequality and economic democratisation is approached by a melting pot of citizen’s initiatives organized around the defence of the common good. The observation of the history and governance mechanisms of a sample of entities in the field of employment, citizen’s participation, and the exchange of resources that respond to social needs, offers us evidences of the commitment of this type of initiatives to the continuous improvement of the local welfare regime. This contribution against the failure of social policies is combined with a search for organisational autonomy and the maintaining of a critical point of view with respect to public administrations. The leadership of the cooperative sector in the development of social and labour inclusion can be explained as a response to the deindustrialization experienced in the Biscayan context and is key to understand the commitment of Basque Administrations to the provision of welfare policies. Also the role of the neighbourhood movements empowering people in the most disadvantaged contexts, and a political culture that gives importance to citizen’s participation at the local level, are key to understand the consolidation in the city of Bilbao, of a local socially innovative system with critical, creative and dynamic actors. Finally, considering the emergence of new actors in the context of the recent Great Recession, it should be pointed out that current networks between citizen's creative strategies are mainly structured around a collaborative provision and exchange of resources to respond to social needs, with a strong perspective on economic democratization that without succumbing to the dynamics of co-optation by public administrations are promoting democratic innovation and coproduction of public policies from a a socially transformative perspective.