La consideración de la innovación social en servicios sociales en las comunidades autónomas de España. Un estudio empírico de las tendencias actuales

El concepto de innovación social puede aplicarse a numerosas áreas y es cada vez más habitual encontrarlo en el contexto de los servicios sociales. Se ha desarrollado una investigación descriptiva mediante análisis documental para identificar y analizar cuantitativa y cualitativamente una muestra de iniciativas de servicios sociales que han sido catalogadas como innovadoras por parte de agentes relevantes del sistema entre 2016 y 2022 en España. Los resultados permiten establecer una aproximación inicial sobre las líneas de actuación que se están considerando innovadoras en servicios sociales y valorar en qué medida están preconfigurando futuras transformaciones del conjunto del sistema.

Social innovation is a concept that is currently a regular part of political, academic, and professional discourses. One of the most widely used definitions is that of the European Commission (2013), which identifies it as “new ideas as products, services, and models to meet social needs and create new social relationships or collaborations. It represents new responses to pressing social demands, which affect the process of social interactions. It is aimed at social wellbeing. Social innovations are innovations that are social in both their ends and their means. They are innovations that are not only good for society but also enhance individuals’ capacity to act”. In general, it can be understood as any action in which people are involved with the aim of seeking different ways to satisfy social needs, although, depending on the field of action in which it is applied, the definition and the elements that comprise it may vary. This article will address social innovation in the framework of social services. Since the economic crisis of 2008, its use in the field of social policies has become widespread at European level. However, although social innovation in social services can be understood, in general terms, as all those transformations that respond to current socio-demographic and political challenges by modifying service policies and social relationships generating a real impact on the daily lives of citizens (Crepaldi et al., 2012), there is still a lack of uniqueness in its definition, as well as some criticism of labelling as innovative some actions that might not be so. The absence of a homogeneous positioning, therefore, makes it difficult to describe it and to establish criteria to distinguish between innovative actions and those which would not be innovative according to theoretical conceptualizations. Through this research, a theoretical review of the different approaches that have been made on this concept has been carried out to identify and analyze the practices that are being recognized as innovative in the field of the Spanish social services by relevant agents of the system, as well as the elements that characterize them. The empirical analysis has been carried out from a territorial perspective, which allows to compare the lines of action in terms of social innovation in social services that are being developed in each Spanish autonomous community