Citizen Participation in Social Work with Vulnerable Groups under the Agenda of Welfare Innovation

Welfare innovation and citizen participation are two phenomena, which are illustrating the way many public sectors today are trying to respond to the economic crisis of the welfare system. In a welfare state as Denmark welfare innovation, including innovation by users has become a solution to developing the public services in the municipalities. This paper focuses on citizen participation as an approach to innovate the social work practice with vulnerable groups in the public sector. On the basis of Bourdieu’s theory of practice (1972) I argue that citizen participation is a difficult approach to make innovations when it includes citizens in vulnerable positions. This is because of their lacks of resources (capitals) and power, social problems and their positions in the society. Arnstein(1969) argues with the ladder of participation that citizen participation is a categorical term for citizen power. The ladder illustrates different levels of participation corresponding to the extent of citizens´ power in determining the end product. These perspectives motivates the research question: How is citizen participation understood and put into practice in the social work with vulnerable groups under the agenda of welfare innovation in the public sector, and what are the limitations and potentials of citizen participation under this agenda? In this paper I will provide a review over the literature concerning the research question. In my search for literature I will use international databases of political and sociological science (SCOPUS) and I will focus on welfare innovation/innovation by users and citizen participation combined with vulnerable groups and social work. Methodological I will use the AMSTAR method (The assessment of multiple systematic reviews) to conduct the review. The purpose is to reach new forms of understanding of the phenomena citizen participation and welfare innovation, the theories and the use in practice within the context of social work.