The symposium is part of a preparatory process of a research consortium to study transformative social innovation in the field of home care.

Ageing population is an apparent long-term development in Europe, driven by historically low fertility rates, increasing life expectancy and, in some cases, migratory patterns. Population projections suggest that the ageing of the Europe’s population will quicken in the coming decades. One remarkable aspect of the projected population structure concerns the progressive ageing of the older population itself: people aged 85 years or higher is growing at a faster pace than any other age group.

Present models of care are increasingly challenged (European Union 2021), since well-coordinated and high-quality services are necessary to address the specific needs and risk factors affecting older people. Informal care provided by family and friends will need to be supported and improved to allow people with functional limitations to stay at home as long as possible, which is preferred by most of them. However, public policy has been slow to support a shift from institutions and hospitals to home-based settings (Genet et al. 2011). In all European countries, informal care accounts for most care-hours, while comparative studies in the field of home care are still rare, particularly in Central and Eastern European countries (Genet et al. 2011). Therefore, our focus is on home care for the elderly. Here we see major challenges and needs for innovative solutions that transform the institutional setting of care particularly in these regions.

Research topics and goals

• Develop a model for comparative analysis of transformative social innovation (TSI) in the field of home care, which highlights processes of network formation and network relations.
• Explore the interrelatedness and embeddedness of social innovation (SI) in terms of varieties of socio-political welfare systems (policy level: legitimacy and distribution), socio-technical innovation regimes (sectoral level: creation and production) and path-dependencies (historical level: replication, continuity/discontinuity).

Theoretical base and methodological approach

We use a multilevel approach to explain the dynamics and impact of transformative social innovation (TSI) in the field of care. Based on an analysis of different welfare regimes and institutional environments, the project focuses on the interrelatedness of SI initiatives (mostly SI labs) and its networks. We define transformation as second-order change, which implies changing the meta-rules or paradigms of a particular system (Levy 1986.: 19). Analyzing TSI with a network approach assumes that highly dynamic processes and a set of quickly changing agents are typical characteristics of TSI, which implies the relations between several parties involved (Haxeltine et al. 2017). These involves parties operate at different levels. Our multi-level perspective from sustainable transition studies (Geels 2002), distinguishes landscape developments on the macro level, such as climate change; sociotechnical regimes on the meso level, such as sectoral developments; and niches on the micro level, such as new products. TSIC studies developing SI initiatives and connections among these initiatives to share information and enhance the chance of SI turning transformative, which leads an analysis of the following four clusters of relations:

Bullinger, A.C., Rass, M., Adamczyk, S., Moeslein, K.M., Sohn, S. (2012). Open innovation in health care: Analysis of an open health platform. Health Policy, Vol. 105, Issues 2–3, 2012, 165-175 Geels, F. et al. (2016): The enactment of socio-technical transition pathways: A reformulated typology and a comparative multi-level analysis of the German and UK low-carbon electricity transitions (1990–2014). Research Policy 45:4, 896-913. Geels, F. (2002): Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: a multi-level perspective and a case-study. Research Policy 31, 1257–1274. Genet, N., Boerma, W.G.W., Kringos, D.S., Bouman, A., Francke, A.L., Fagerström, C., Melchiore, M.G., Greco, C. & Devillé, W. (2011): Home Care in Europe: a systematic literature review. BMC Health Services Research 11 (2011), No. 207 Haxeltine, A., et al. (2017), “Building a middle-range theory of Transformative Social Innovation; theoretical pitfalls and methodological responses”, Methodological challenges in Social Innovation workshop, February 9th 2017, Brussels (BE)