Social Investment in welfare: a sub-national perspective

Abstract

Taking a critical but sympathetic perspective, this chapter discusses recent debates around Social Investment as a new welfare paradigm. Scholarly and policy literature on Social Investment focus on aggregate effects and macro-comparative analysis with limited reference to local and micro level implementation and practice. Innovation is an essential element of Social Investment as social policies require constant adaptation to new challenges, yet literatures on Social Investment and social innovation rarely connect. This chapter sets the scene for the edited collection, highlighting the aim to advance empirical and conceptual insight into Social Investment from a social innovation and a sub national perspective. It briefly introduces in-depth, multi method case studies in ten EU countries of innovative, strategic approaches to delivering social investment policy at a sub national level.

Beyond the formal economy. Social cooperatives for labour integration under the pressure of market competitiveness

“…Using the substantive economic approach derived from Pol anyi (1976), we analysed the operation of Hungarian RWI SCs to explore the main substantive promoting mechanisms and the barriers that make it difficult for organisations to operate in the market and be economically sustainable. In the following, we will proceed along the four aspects of analysis (based on Csoba, 2007;Baines et al, 2019):…”

“…Despite the social goals and altruistic motivations, Csoba (2007Csoba ( , 2020 stresses that this does not mean that the social economy is not productive or value-creating. In the substantive economy, work is not an end in itself but an activity with a social function, serving the interests of the community, a natural way of being (Baines et al, 2019;Csoba, 2007; see detailed in Table 1).…”

“…In the course of the study, based on the characteristics of the substantive economy, highlighted by Baines et al (2019), deriving from the theory of Pol anyi (1976) (see Table 1). A total of 4 analytical criteria and 17 indicators were defined to explore promoting mechanisms and barriers in the operation of Hungarian RWSCs.…”

“…The logic of the substantive economy and the functioning of the social economy share many similarities (Baines et al , 2019; Csoba, 2007; Defourny and Nyssens, 2006, 2017; Olmedo et al , 2023; Olmedo and O’Shaughnessy, 2022; Roy and Grant, 2019).…”

“…These RWI SCs are a hybrid form between the market and the subsidised public sector and, in many ways, operate outside the rules of the formal economy. Our research builds on Károly Polányi’s theory of the substantive economy (1976, 1977), that some researchers (Baines et al , 2019; Csoba, 2007; Hopkins, 2016; Olmedo et al , 2019; Olmedo and O’Shaughnessy, 2022; Roy and Grant, 2019) have recently used to describe the functioning of the social economy. There are, however, some mechanisms of SCs that are under-researched in the substantive context, such as the nature of organisational goals, the integrating role of the workplace or the substantive benefits of workers’ participation in the production process.…”