Beata Segercrantz

A critical reading of the European Union’s social innovation policy discourse: (Re)legitimizing neoliberalism:

In this article, we conduct a critical reading of the European Union social innovation policy discourse. We argue that rather than being a transformative discourse within European Union policy, European Union social innovation policy discourse reinforces neoliberal hegemony by (re)legitimizing it. Inspired by post-foundational discourse theory and Glynos and Howarth’s logics of critical explanation, we analyse three central European Union social innovation policy documents. We characterize what kind of political project is articulated in and through European Union social innovation policy discourse, and uncover how it relates to neoliberal political rationality. Our contribution lies in showing (1) how the social logics of European Union social innovation policy can be understood as both ‘roll-out’ and ‘roll-with-it’ neoliberalization, thereby relegitimizing and naturalizing neoliberalism; (2) how the political logics of European Union social innovation policy pre-empt the critique of ‘roll-back’ neoliberalization and thus legitimize decreased public expenditure; and (3) how the fantasmatic logics make European Union social innovation policy ideologically useful in relegitimizing neoliberalism through the win-win-win fantasy and the ethical responsibilization of subjects. We argue that resisting the neoliberalizing power of European Union social innovation policy discourse implies resisting the fantasmatic grip of social innovation as carrying a sublime win-win-win. Instead of accepting social innovation as driven by a replication of best practices, we need to understand social innovations as conceived and suited for particular social issues in particular contexts: we call for a different win-win mindset that does not blind innovators to possible negative impacts of social innovations.

A critical reading of the European Union’s social innovation policy

In this paper we conduct a critical reading of the European Union’s social innovation (EUSI) policy discourse. We argue that social innovation has become a prominent element of European policy discourses and can be seen as a key component in an emerging hegemonic project. We therefore engage in a problematization of EUSI policy. Inspired by a governmentality perspective and Howarth’s framework for critical policy studies (2010) we examine the social, political, ideological, ethical and economic logics in three EUSI policy documents. Our contribution lies in (1) our problematization and critical study of social innovation policy discourse in the EU context; and (2) our expansion of Howarth’s framework with two additional logics that are at play in policy discourse: ethical logics and economic logics. The distinction between ideological and ethical logics helps us to expose how EUSI discourse is meant to grip subjects through both the fantasmatic promise of a win-win-win and the ethical injunction of responsibilization. The addition of economic logics helps us to reflect on the further incorporation of the social into the economy, as the economic valuation of social and environmental impacts becomes a key part of the vision for the future of the EU.