Resisting social innovation: the case of neighborhood health centers in Belgium

Abstract

The role played by powerful social groups in opposing or even halting the diffusion of social innovation is insufficiently studied regarding modern time social innovations. This is especially relevant in cases aimed at meeting social groups with few resources, such as people in poverty. This paper examines this in the case of Neighborhood Healthcare Centers in Belgium, a social innovation with potential to offer accessible care to less resourceful inhabitants. It documents how these organizations made an effort to expand but were met with sustained resistance of doctors’ associations and political opponents. It concludes that the inherent merits of social innovations which benefit vulnerable groups are insufficient to warrant their diffusion, as initiatives might run against the interests of more powerful groups.