Comparing social innovation initiatives in Barcelona and Bilbao. Looking at associative participation in the governance of citizens’ rights

Abstract

This article presents the main conclusions of a doctoral thesis on participation in urban governance based on a sample of entities promoted by civil society that are aimed at dealing with the dynamics of social exclusion in two different cities: Barcelona and Bilbao. A comparison has been made of how civil society is organised in both cities in five different areas of innovation (labour integration, promotion of solidarity economy, defence of citizen rights for migrants, sociocultural renewal of deprived neighbourhoods, and defence of the right to housing). While in one context multilevel governance tends to promote social innovation in parallel to the provision of welfare services and resources (Bilbao), in the other context this promotion is carried out under tighter conditions of welfare policy financing, which leads to a greater emphasis on the dynamics of coordination between civil society and government (Barcelona). These differences may be related to distinct political cultures and mechanisms used by socially transformative associations to institutionalize social innovation dynamics. The findings unmask the apolitical use of the notion of social innovation, observing the mechanisms through which the impact and the associative participation in multi-level governance can be measured in order to improve citizens’ rights and to promote the transformation of the power relations that are generating social exclusion dynamics.

Keywords: social innovation; citizen rights; multilevel governance; urban governance; socially-creative strategies.