Institutionalising Social Innovation in Early Childhood Education and Care in Barcelona, Spain

Abstract

Research has defined social innovation as citizen-led initiatives that offer new products and services that satisfy self-defined social needs that are not met by the current public or private provision. This means that policy intervention would be at loggerheads with the aims and means of social innovation projects, as it involves institutional leadership. However, numerous studies have demonstrated that social innovation might foster new solutions that could provide inputs for policy learning. We provide evidence of policy changes in early childhood education and care in Barcelona between 2015 and 2023, where the ‘new municipalist’ city council developed socially innovative services that were partially inspired by citizen-led projects. This chapter will show how policy change occurred by institutionalising innovative practices to meet an increasingly diversified demand for 0–3 services from an inclusive perspective.

Citation

Maestripieri, L. and Gallego, R. (2024), "Institutionalising Social Innovation in Early Childhood Education and Care in Barcelona, Spain", Gallego, R., Motos, S.G. and Maestripieri, L. (Ed.) Social Innovation and Welfare State Retrenchment, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 61-77. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83753-928-420241009