This article distills three key issues of concern from the literature on the role of foodbanks in the fight against poverty. It illustrates these issues with empirical material from a study on foodbanks in Belgium. The first issue concerns the problematic relation of foodbanks to structural poverty reduction. Second is the problematic position of people in poverty within the foodbank system. Third is the role of foodbanks in so called ‘welfare retrenchment#x2019; and the shifting of responsibility from state to charity. We end by discussing recent evolutions and reflecting on what margin exists to improve in each three areas.

Social innovation Poverty Poverty reduction Structural analysis Research design In the last decades social innovation has attracted much research attention, with a variety of projects studying how social needs are approached in innovative ways. However social innovation is rarely analysed through an understanding of the specific social problem they react to. This article develops an analytical framework to study social innovations in relation to structural poverty reduction. After explaining the underlying theory on poverty, it described five key factors and twelve sub-factors to be taken into account for the design of research on social innovation in the field of poverty. This includes: the relation to the structural production of poverty; the relation to the position of people in poverty; the relation to solidarity and political conditions; the diffusion, scale and continuation and finally the relation to government and existing poverty programs.

Este documento sirve como una introducción a la edición especial de Derechos Humanos. Comienza con una introducción general al concepto y la lógica de los derechos humanos, así como un marco para comprender los diferentes tipos de leyes y normas internacionales que a menudo se mencionan en las discusiones sobre los Derechos Humanos. La parte central del texto analiza los abusos sistemáticos o estructurales de los derechos humanos, que a menudo son menos visibles que los eventos 'espectaculares'. El artículo continúa explorando por qué ciertos derechos (por ejemplo, los derechos económicos) son más difíciles de politizar como temas explícitos de derechos humanos, teniendo en cuenta tanto el panorama institucional, la posición social de los grupos sociales afectados como los derechos mismos. Concluye destacando la importancia de enmarcar todo abuso de los derechos humanos como abuso de los derechos humanos,

The role played by powerful social groups in opposing or even halting the diffusion of social innovation is insufficiently studied regarding modern time social innovations. This is especially relevant in cases aimed at meeting social groups with few resources, such as people in poverty. This paper examines this in the case of Neighborhood Healthcare Centers in Belgium, a social innovation with potential to offer accessible care to less resourceful inhabitants. It documents how these organizations made an effort to expand but were met with sustained resistance of doctors’ associations and political opponents. It concludes that the inherent merits of social innovations which benefit vulnerable groups are insufficient to warrant their diffusion, as initiatives might run against the interests of more powerful groups.

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