The organisation and distribution of care responsibilities represent a central issue in contemporary welfare debates. Although welfare systems have progressively sought to socialise care related risks tackling distribution's inequality, the organisation of care services received less attention. The organisation of care should be democratic which requires inclusive governance that engages all stakeholders. In decentralised systems such as those in Italy and Spain, the local level plays a pivotal institutional role in shaping care policies, influenced by both vertical and horizontal subsidiarity. This article examines to what extent local governance contributes to the democratisation of care and what are the factors that shape local differences through a comparative analysis of four cities-two in Emilia-Romagna (Italy) and two in Andalusia (Spain)-and across two policy areas: Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and Long-Term Care (LTC). Drawing content analysis of 79 policy documents and 25 interviews, we investigate the degree of care democratisation from a multilevel territorial perspective. Our findings reveal significant differences in governance between ECEC and LTC, largely attributable to supramunicipal frameworks and to the multilevel distribution of responsibilities. Regional traditions and path dependency further shape care arrangements. Nonetheless, the local dimension, particularly the political will, resources availability, and openness to participatory processes, emerge a relevant factors. We argue that national and regional institutions should reinforce municipal capacity to promote co-governance. Moreover, enhancing the inclusion of less-structured and marginalised actors across all levels is essential to advancing a more democratic and therefore equitable care system.

El objetivo principal de este trabajo es analizar el pluralismo del sectorasociativo femenino en municipios españoles. Más concretamente, sehace una propuesta metodológica para la construcción de una tipologíade asociaciones de mujeres. Se aplica a datos procedentes de unaencuesta realizada en cinco municipios españoles. Los resultadosprincipales confi rman la existencia de pluralismo en este sectorasociativo. Sin embargo, además de los dos tipos principales deasociaciones de mujeres que suele identifi car la literatura (movimientofeminista y asociaciones de mujeres), se identifi can tipos híbridos apartir de su involucración en la co-producción de servicios públicos. Portanto, la co-producción, además de su agenda, su activismo político yla prestación de servicios propios, supone una dimensión relevante paraclasifi car a las asociaciones de mujeres y mejorar el conocimiento sobreeste sector asociativo en España.

In the current paper we analyse the relationship between territory and culture through the symbolic orientation of the territory. Cultural scenes focus on understanding the opportunities for cultural consumption that exist in cities, and the lifestyles that can be experienced in them, giving them meaning and making the territory recognizable. This work aims to validate both the conceptual and methodological approach to cultural scenes through their application to the Spanish case, as well as how to apply this perspective empirically. The main result validates a scale that measures the orientation from the conventional (communitarian) to the non-conventional (innovative) in the cultural landscape of Spain. This result allows the beginning of a recognizable, systematic and comparable process to measure the opportunities for cultural consumption in a territory, and the impact on lifestyles.

A growing research agenda shows the importance of local welfare systems in understanding socio-spatial inequalities in health. Welfare services provided by local governments overlap with those provided by other levels of government. Thus, differences in the provision of welfare services between municipalities could explain differences in residents’ health, moderating the magnitude of health inequalities if local governments deploy actions capable of positively influencing the social determinants of health. This article attempts to analyse this idea in the Spanish case, exploring the influence of local policies according to the orientation of municipal spending on three indicators of the population’s health status: self-perceived health, healthy practices and activity limitations due to health problems. A multilevel cross-sectional study was designed using information from two waves of the 2006–2007 and 2011–2012 National Health Survey for the population aged 15 years and older (N = 31,378) residing in Spanish municipalities of 20,000 inhabitants or over (N = 373). The results show that the magnitude of inequalities in self-perceived health, in the adoption of healthy practices and in daily activity limitations by social class are smaller as municipalities” spending was oriented towards policy areas considered as redistributive. Therefore, the proposed institutional overlap thesis could help understand the role of subnational governments on the magnitude of health inequalities, as well as in comparative analysis between countries with institutional systems in which local governments have a greater or lesser capacity to provide welfare services.

Since the 1990s, the European Union has launched different programs to promote urban development plans. Implementation and outcomes evaluations have resulted in a “European urban acquis” concerning the importance of comprehensiveness, collaborative governance, and participation to promote “good plans.” However, the evaluation of the quality of local plans, has received less attention. This article analyses quality of local plans developed under the framework of European Policies in Spain applying the plan quality evaluation approach, as well as factors explaining quality levels of these local plans. A scale to measure plan quality is proposed based on five main dimensions (fact base, objectives, policy actions, plan governance, evaluation). 64 local plans are analyzed applying content analysis. RgW and AD tests are used to measure codification reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is used to assess the validity of plan quality scale. Lineal regression is applied to analyze the impact of different aspects of planning process included in the ‘European urban acquis’ on plan quality. Main results show that CFA validates the scale proposed to measure local plan quality as a second-order factor; and point out objectives and policy actions as the most important first-order factors. Public participation during planning process, and more comprehensive plan across different policy areas, are the main factors explaining ‘good plans’. Therefore, the importance of the ‘European urban acquis,’ is confirmed in order to produce ‘good’ urban development plans; and the article provides a validated scale to evaluate the quality of urban development plans, and their main dimensions.

This article presents a basic analysis to respond to these questions, analyzing projects done in the framework of UR-BAN and URBANA programs in Spain (1994-2013).

Since the 1990s, the European Union has launched comprehensive programs and initiatives that promote integrated urban development, the goal being improved urban development, in general, and a reduction of socio spatial inequalities in cities, in particular. The policies generated as a result of these programs and initiatives have shaped a European strategy that promotes integrated urban development, the so-called "urban agenda". But, what in fact is the agenda that has been promoted by these initiatives during the last two decades? And, what are the experiences that would help define an urban agenda for Spanish cities? This article presents a basic analysis to respond to these questions, analyzing projects done in the framework of URBAN and URBANA programs in Spain (1994-2013).

As with other comparative exercises, the comparative analysis of local governance faces some methodological challenges, including sample design and the measurement of the concepts involved. One of the main issues is the analysis of the patterns of influence of various actors on local government decisions. This article proposes a measurement model to analyse patterns of influence using comparative surveys of political leaders. This model holds that patterns of influence are organised around four sectors of actors (local government, intergovernmental, pro-growth, and public interest groups), and that these sectors are organised according to two political arenas (governmental and social). Using a survey of European mayors across 17 countries, the proposal is validated by confirmatory factor analysis. This proposal could be useful to analyse studies conducted previously or to design new studies.

This work aims to reflect on the concept of social innovation, questioning its explanatory capacity for the discipline of social work. For this purpose, certain on-going debates with regard to this concept are examined and certain minimum dimensions are offered to enable an analysis of the social innovation strategies that certain affected groups implement to meet social needs. The approach is to construct "glasses" that permit an analytical engagement with new realities and with the strategies used by certain social groups to resolve situations of severe vulnerability. Finally, a case study is presented: a strategic group known as the Corrala Utopia that seeks to respond to severe housing problems and is developing in the city of Seville. The article highlights the elements of community social innovation emerging from the experience studied.

Con este trabajo se busca reflexionar acerca del concepto de innovación social, interpelando su capacidad explicativa para la disciplina del Trabajo Social; para ello se pretende poner en diálogo algunos de los debates existentes en torno a este concepto y ofrecer unas dimensiones mínimas que permitan analizar las estrategias de innovación social que desarrollan ciertos colectivos afectados para responder a las necesidades sociales. Se trata de construir unas ‘gafas’ que permitan una mirada analítica a nuevas realidades y a las estrategias que desarrollan algunos colectivos sociales para resolver situaciones de vulnerabilidad severa. Finalmente se presenta un estudio de caso: una estrategia colectiva que pretende dar respuesta a problemas habitacionales severos y que se viene desarrollando en la ciudad de Sevilla, la Corrala Utopía. El artículo pone de relieve los elementos de innovación social comunitaria que produce la experiencia estudiada.

Como en otros ejercicios comparativos, el análisis comparado de la gobernanza local enfrenta algunos desafíos metodológicos, como el diseño de las muestras y la medición de conceptos. Uno de los principales problemas es el análisis de las pautas de influencia de diferentes actores en las decisiones del gobierno local. Este artículo propone un modelo de medida para analizar este asunto en estudios comparativos entre los líderes políticos. Se sostiene que estos patrones se organizan en torno a cuatro sectores (gobierno local, intergubernamental, prodesarrollo y grupos de interés público) y estos en dos arenas políticas (gubernamental y social). La propuesta es validada mediante la aplicación de análisis factorial confirmatorio a una encuesta a alcaldes europeos en 17 países. La propuesta podría ser útil para analizar estudios previamente realizados o diseñar nuevos estudios.

Local governance involves coalitions between public and private actors on policy issues. Actors participating in these coalitions may vary according to the issue in question, even within the same city. Based on a survey carried out among actors from different sectors of the local political community in four Spanish cities, governance networks are analyzed across five different issues: public housing, cultural tourism, urban regeneration, social policy, and citizen participation. Using network analysis and indexes in a comparative examination of 20 policy networks, we show that variations across networks are explained by policy issue content and supra-municipal regulations, regardless of the cities’ political characteristics.

El objetivo principal de este articulo es analizar algunos efectos de la crisis economica en la ciudad de Sevilla, desde el punto de vista de los discursos generados por diferentes actores, institucionales y no institucionales, con respecto a la crisis economica. Mas concretamente se pretende, por un lado, dar cuenta de las principales vulnerabilidades, a partir de indicadores construidos al efecto, y de las potencialidades que podrian estar en la base del diseno de nuevas politicas o, cuando menos, de estrategias de salida. Por otro lado, se observara en los discursos enunciados por actores relevantes en la ciudad, su vision sobre las vulnerabilidades y potencialidades, centrando el analisis en las estrategias y propuestas de politicas urbanas que, segun estos mismos actores, se deberian disenar e implementar. Dar cuenta de todo ello ha supuesto un trabajo de analisis descriptivo mediante datos secundarios de los principales indicadores sociales y politicos y la realizacion y analisis de once entrevistas a informantes claves de diversos ambitos de la ciudad. La muestra ha sido construida con un criterio posicional incluyendo representantes de sectores socio-politicos de ambitos institucionales y no institucionales. Los resultados obtenidos, en general, permiten concluir que, ademas del consabido impacto de la crisis en las grandes ciudades, en este caso concreto ha hecho visible vulnerabilidades pre-existentes, potencialidades no consideradas y una alta dualidad entre dos posiciones antagonicas ante la toma de decisiones publicas, que se revela como una nueva vulnerabilidad.