Social innovation in cities [URBACT II Capitalisation]

This publication looks at social innovation from the point of view of cities. Social innovation is intended here to mean innovative solutions, new forms of organisation and new interactions to tackle social issues. In particular, it focuses on innovative solutions in terms of the governance of cities : new forms of collaboration between the city administration, citizens and local stakeholders which can generate more sustainable, resilient and open systems at city level. The first article sets the scene: what does social innovation mean? What is the potential for cities? How is social innovation reflected in the URBACT capitalisation process and in the EU so far? A series of five articles then focuses on key questions emerging from the in-depth investigations in Amersfoort and Gdańsk and from many other innovative practices identified in European cities, in particular those involved in URBACT thematic networks: i. What is changing in city administrations to facilitate collaboration with citizens? Listening better to all voices to better spot social innovation and then play a brokerage role between stakeholders to implement these innovations. ii. How are citizens helping to build collaborative public services? What are the potential and limits of their involvement? iii. How can cities create the right environment for social innovation to develop? What combination of tools and agencies, offline and online, can catalyse citizens’ energies and contributions? iv. How can cities create space for experimentation and facilitate the maturation, deployment and scaling up of social innovation? v. How can cities use their purchasing power to facilitate social innovation, orient public procurement and use public money to kick-start new initiatives? A final synthesis section pulls together the lessons learned. It formulates policy recommendations and warnings, and wraps them up into 10 actions for cities to start with social innovation. [Extracted from Introduction].

Citation

URBACT (2015) Social innovation in cities [URBACT II capitalisation], Saint Denis (Paris), URBACT.