New Initiatives for the Empowerment of People with Activity Limitations

The paper exploits an extensive quantitative case mapping to blend three strands of research: First, social innovation will be considered as an approach to improve and/or guarantee social inclusion for people with activity limitations. Secondly, ICT will be understood as a means to empower people with activity limitations; and thirdly, the needs of vulnerable people will be regarded as a lens for scrutinizing those two approaches: How can ICT based social innovation/digital social innovation (DSI) empower people? The analysed cases shed light on the phenomenon of digital social innovations and allow first insights into their practice. The paper illustrates a quantitative overview of the actors behind these initiatives, their funding structures and drivers and barriers. In a conclusion, the new phenomenon of digital social innovation is described in contours