Can Social Innovation be the Answer? The Role of Citizen Action in the Face of Increasing Socio-Spatial Polarization

Journal title TERRITORIO
Author/s Ismael Blanco, Oriol Nel·lo
Publishing Year 2018 Issue 2017/83
Language English Pages 10 P. 7-16 File size 466 KB
DOI 10.3280/TR2017-083001
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In recent years, literature has highlighted the importance of social practices of cooperation in the face of increasing social and spatial segregation, assuming that the intensity of social innovation is greater in the most vulnerable areas, where the effects of the crisis and the limits of public intervention are more evident. This paper critically reviews this assumption through a systematic analysis of the relationship between urban segregation and social innovation in different urban areas in Catalonia, showing how social innovation does not necessarily emerge in areas concentrating the most intense social needs, but in middle-income urban areas with a strong tradition of grassroots mobilisation. It points out the limits of social innovation in counteracting the cities’ growing inequalities, as well as the need for public intervention oriented towards the enhancement of collective action capabilities in the most vulnerable urban areas

Keywords: Social innovation; urban segregation; Catalonia

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Ismael Blanco, Oriol Nel·lo, Can Social Innovation be the Answer? The Role of Citizen Action in the Face of Increasing Socio-Spatial Polarization in "TERRITORIO" 83/2017, pp 7-16, DOI: 10.3280/TR2017-083001