Roy, M. J., McHugh, N. and Hill OConnor, C. (2014) Social innovation: worklessness, welfare and well-being. Social Policy and Society, 13(3), pp. 457-467. (doi: 10.1017/S1474746414000104)
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Abstract
The UK Government has recently implemented large-scale public-sector funding cuts and substantial welfare reform. Groups within civil society are being encouraged to fill gaps in service provision, and ‘social innovation’ has been championed as a means of addressing social exclusion, such as that caused by worklessness, a major impediment to citizens being able to access money, power and resources, which are key social determinants of health. The aim of this article is to make the case for innovative ‘upstream’ approaches to addressing health inequalities, and we discuss three prominent social innovations gaining traction: microcredit for enterprise; social enterprise in the form of Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs); and Self Reliant Groups (SRGs). We find that while certain social innovations may have the potential to address health inequalities, large-scale research programmes that will yield the quality and range of empirical evidence to demonstrate impact, and, in particular, an understanding of the causal pathways and mechanisms of action, simply do not yet exist.
| Item Type: | Articles |
|---|---|
| Status: | Published |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Hill OConnor, Dr Clementine |
| Authors: | Roy, M. J., McHugh, N., and Hill OConnor, C. |
| College/School: | College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences |
| Journal Name: | Social Policy and Society |
| Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
| ISSN: | 1474-7464 |
| ISSN (Online): | 1475-3073 |
| Published Online: | 24 March 2014 |
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