Driving inclusive care: economic democracy and social economy (DICES)

Social economy organisations can play a crucial role in tackling social exclusion. However, the development of social economy governance frameworks and their impact on social inclusion remains insufficiently explored.

The DICES project aims to bridge this gap with a threefold objective:

1. Enhance understanding of Europe's social economy and identify factors driving its uneven development;
2. Evaluate the role of social economy organisations in addressing social exclusion and improving services and workplaces;
3. Recommend policy measures and governance frameworks to unlock the social economy's potential, including strategies for identifying and promoting best practices.

DICES, first, establishes a conceptual and empirical framework and conducts a mapping, examining the social economy's integration into welfare governance frameworks. Second, DICES uses 'deep dives' to investigate contributions at local, including in left behind places, and organizational levels, including in the provision of care. This work builds on case studies and pilot actions, a survey, small-scale experiments and other innovative methods. This approach is connected through the identification of conditions that would allow organizational experiments to scale up into institutional experiments.

DICES is lead by KU Leuven, and The team from ISF play a key role in the projects as participant in the executive board and by leading the work package on mapping the local, national and supranational public sector governance of the social economy. By comparing the regulatory framework across different countries, we analyze drives and barriers for the role social economy actors can play in welfare in general and in the care sector in particular.

DICES disseminates findings through research papers policy briefs, a digital storyboard, webinars, and toolboxes for policymakers and practitioners to maximize impact on policymakers, stakeholders, and the public.

Publications

Enjolras, Bernard, Trætteberg, Håkon Solbu & Winsvold, Marte (2025). Assessment of Policy and Regulatory Framework Shaping the Social Economy in Europe. Working paper. Read it here.