Urban segregation and social innovation

"At a time of crisis in which social inequality is more widespread than ever, we usually look to the processes of social innovation for ways of alleviating the effects of a bad situation. But can social innovation processes in the most disadvantaged communities really address the impact of the crisis? One of the things that has a fundamental effect on social exclusion in urban environments is differential land income. The ability of each individual or unit to choose where they live is determined according to their income. In this sense, urban income acts as a factor of social segregation, giving a greater degree of choice in the use of urban space to certain affluent social groups at the same time as it acts as a control mechanism in terms of the residential mobility of disadvantaged communities. In view of this problem associated with capitalist urban regimes, can social innovation change the dynamics of social segregation in the urban landscape?

Questions like these are guiding the "Barris i Crisi" (Neighbourhoods and Crisis) http://barrisicrisi.wordpress.com/ research project focused on Catalonia. This study is carrying out a statistical analysis of the dynamics of urban segregation in the 2001-2012 period, mapping social innovation practices across the whole of Catalonia and comparing different case studies. This research will enable us to highlight the structural and metropolitan nature of urban segregation and see how the effect of the property bubble has only helped to increase this unequal distribution of territory. Common sense (or perhaps an optimistic reading of empirical reality) can make us think that social innovation practices should be more commonplace in neighbourhoods more severely affected by the crisis. The belief that crisis situations provide an incentive for innovation is regarded as valid even for the most disadvantaged communities. But is this really the case? Is the inclusiveness of excluded citizens a process driven by the affected communities themselves? Where public policy cannot reach, can affected communities act for themselves?
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