Combating poverty in Europe: multi-level, multi-dimensional and multi-stakeholder models in local active inclusion policies

Reducing poverty and social exclusion is one of the main challenges for ensuring social cohesion in Europe. The research project COPE – Combating Poverty in Europe: Re-organising Active Inclusion through Participatory and Integrated Modes of Multilevel Governance’ – analyses trends of poverty and social exclusion in Europe, and examines the dynamics of minimum income protection policies that potentially help alleviate the risk of poverty in Europe. A particular focus is on the situation of single mothers, long-term unemployed and the working poor, who face particular risks of poverty and social exclusion. To what extent have minimum income policies functioned as last resort social security for these three groups, and in what sense can ‘active inclusion’ policies credited with protecting them from poverty and social exclusion?
Co-financed by the European Commission in the 7th Framework Programme, the COPE project unites researchers and stakeholders from six European countries, The present report is part of COPE’s effort to uncover the dynamics of local level policy reforms in the area ‘active inclusion’, namely reforms affecting local policies that specify the adequacy of minimum income benefits, the provision of employment services, as well as the organisation of access to social services. This study analyses the dynamics and varieties with focus on multilevel governance and multi-stakeholders perspective in combating poverty at local level in five European municipalities: Dortmund, Turin, Radom, Malmö and Glasgow.