Social Innovations – A Political Buzzword or a Trigger for European Union Development?

Abstract

The article concerns social innovations recognized by politicians in the second decade of the 21st century as a basic instrument in the process of counteracting social and economic problems and ecological challenges. The aim of the article is to present the concept of social innovation, which underlies the Europe 2020 strategy, implemented based on the European Union’s Social Innovation Policy (EUSIP). This political concept refers directly to the idea of the so-called “social investment state”, which at the turn of the 20th and 21st century was a response to the need to change the social policy model resulting from new social risks and the paradigm of sustainable development. Therefore, the presentation of this concept precedes considerations of social innovations and their assumed role in the strategic approach to the development of the European Union. The article was elaborated based on deliberately selected literature of the subject. It presents the arguments included in the program documents indicating the special development potential of social innovations and the conditions necessary to scale them up, with particular emphasis on innovations oriented towards systemic change. Criticism of the EUSIP was discussed, indicating the limitations of the scaling-up of social innovations that resulted from the diversification of socio-cultural context. This manifested itself in diversified welfare regimes, which had been ignored in the adopted "fast policy" to implementat EUSIP. It was pointed out that the neoliberal approach to responsibility for social security, limiting the role of the state, has continued. The data from the Eurostat report that document the implementation of the Europe 2020 goals are cited at the end of the article. They show that the flagship strategic goal of reducing the number of people at risk of poverty by 20 million will not be achieved.