The number of social enterprises in the Netherlands has increased rapidly. Social enterprises are looking for new, innovative and economically sustainable ways to tackle structural societal challenges that generally fall outside the direct focus and objectives of the public and private sector. Social enterprises are primarily mission-driven, where profit is not a goal in itself but a means of creating societal impact with regard to a specific social problem. Many social enterprises aim to increase their societal impact by growing their organization. However, despite their ambition, scaling up and expanding their impact remains challenging in practice. This research aimed to identify the main constraining factors in scaling up social enterprises and to develop effective methods to tackle these barriers in order to achieve more societal impact. The research was conducted among twenty social enterprises in the Netherlands, all of which aim to stimulate the labor market participation of people who are at a distance from the labor market, generally referred to as work-integration social enterprises. The results show that the majority of the participating social enterprises succeeded in achieving growth in the past two years with regard to specific indicators, but generally not in the way they had originally planned.
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What would Dutch society lose if the Tourism and Recreation sector does not survive and what is needed to preserve its societal value and, preferably even, enhance this value? In this report a combination of methods is used to answer the research question: a literature study, case studies, and a survey among entrepreneurs. A substantial number of scientific articles, advisory reports and conference contributions were analysed in various contexts and for different forms of T&R. In the literature study societal contributions were brought together in a structured manner. The cases reflect the breadth of the sector and serve as good examples of how the sector achieves its societal value, but they also illustrate the challenges. The survey produced several insights. Respondents were asked, for instance, to indicate for each societal value whether they saw a positive, negative or no contribution of the sector. By means of a points system a top 25 was composed and put into a table., this table was used to structure the findings from the study.
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In a rapidly evolving world, the need for innovative approaches to societal challenges is more critical than ever. As partners of the Network Applied Design Research (NADR), we believe that applied design research can be a promising approach for addressing complex issues in many domains, such as health-care, digital media, and urban sustainability. But what makes applied design research such a power-ful force for societal change? And how can designers move beyond mere problem-solving to create lasting impact? To discuss this, NADR applies an annual knowledge cycle where researchers submit contributions that are mutually reflected upon. The contributions you can read in these preceedings are the result of such a knowledge-sharing process. The twenty-one contributions are divided into four themes, each addressing a different dimension of the issue at hand. Contributions in part 1 – Connecting System Levels - emphasise the relationship between small-scale interventions and large-scale change. Contributions in part 2 - Theory of Change - examine how change processes actually take place. Contributions in part 3 - Balancing Different Worldviews - address the unique perspective that each stakeholder involved contributes. And contributions in part 4 - Beyond Solutionism - discuss whether it is at all possible to develop ready-made ‘solutions’ to the complex challenges we are facing.
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Parental involvement is a crucial force in children’s development, learning and success at school and in life [1]. Participation, defined by the World Health Organization as ‘a person’s involvement in life situations’ [2] for children means involvement in everyday activities, such as recreational, leisure, school and household activities [3]. Several authors use the term social participation emphasising the importance of engagement in social situations [4, 5]. Children’s participation in daily life is vital for healthy development, social and physical competencies, social-emotional well-being, sense of meaning and purpose in life [6]. Through participation in different social contexts, children gather the knowledge and skills needed to interact, play, work, and live with other people [4, 7, 8]. Unfortunately, research shows that children with a physical disability are at risk of lower participation in everyday activities [9]; they participate less frequently in almost all activities compared with children without physical disabilities [10, 11], have fewer friends and often feel socially isolated [12-14]. Parents, in particular, positively influence the participation of their children with a physical disability at school, at home and in the community [15]. They undertake many actions to improve their child’s participation in daily life [15, 16]. However, little information is available about what parents of children with a physical disability do to enable their child’s participation, what they come across and what kind of needs they have. The overall aim of this thesis was to investigate parents’ actions, challenges, and needs while enhancing the participation of their school-aged child with a physical disability. In order to achieve this aim, two steps have been made. In the first step, the literature has been examined to explore the topic of this thesis (actions, challenges and needs) and to clarify definitions for the concepts of participation and social participation. Second, for the purposes of giving breadth and depth of understanding of the topic of this thesis a mixed methods approach using three different empirical research methods [17-19], was applied to gather information from parents regarding their actions, challenges and needs.
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Aim: Aim of this study was to provide insight into the costs associated with severe mental illnesses from a societal perspective. Insight into expenses is of value to policymakers and mental health institutions that are dealing with ongoing budget cuts. A reliable cost estimate is also necessary to assess the cost-effectiveness of interventions and make decisions on reimbursement. Methods: Baseline costs were calculated for 188 individuals with severe mental illness (SMI) who wish to increase their societal participation defined as paid or unpaid work, education and meaningful daily activities. Costs were measured from a societal perspective by means of the TIC-P questionnaire and expressed in Euros.
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"Despite many efforts, people with a refugee background still have great difficulties to find a job on the Dutch labour market. This has adverse consequences for the economic independence of people with a refugee background, their social connections, personal development, health and general well-being, but also for employers as well as society in general. There are many sectors in the Dutch labour market with large, structural labor shortages, while at the same time much talent remains untapped. Meanwhile, more and more social enterprises in the Netherlands are stepping into this void, with the explicit goal to facilitate access to the labour market for people with a vulnerable position, including people with a refugee background. Consequently, these so-called work integration social enterprises (WISEs) are — by far — the dominant type of social enterprises in the Netherlands. Although the diversity between WISEs in terms of economic sectors, specific target groups and business models is large, the way in which they organize their key activities can serve as an example for regular employers, who still tend to think in problems rather than opportunities when it comes to employing people with a refugee background. At the same time, the impact of these social enterprises still remains relatively limited in comparison to the scale of the societal challenge. The aim of this study therefore is twofold: 1) to obtain a better understanding of the role of WISEs with regard to the sustainable labor participation of refugees, and 2) to assess the ways in which WISEs can scale their societal impact with respect to labour participation of refugees. These conference proceedings focus in particular on (new) forms of collaboration between WISEs and regular employers that aim to become more inclusive employers."
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Background: Despite trends towards greater professionalisation of the nursing profession and an improved public image in certain countries, studies also show that large proportions of the public still do not fully appreciate nurses’ competencies. Mapping differences in the societal and professional recognition of nurses allows for benchmarking among countries. Aim: To investigate the level of societal recognition of the nursing profession in nine European countries, and the level of professional recognition perceived by European nurses themselves; to compare levels of recognition between countries; and to identify influencing factors. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted. Through an online survey, the study surveyed both the general public and nurses from various healthcare settings across nine countries between December 2022 and June 2023. The instrument used was a combination of self-developed questions on societal and professional recognition, the Work Motivation Scale and an adapted version of the Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale. Data were analysed using SPSS v.29.0, with socioeconomic prestige scores for the public and work environment/work motivation scores for nurses calculated accordingly. Results: A total of 1618 adult citizens and 2335 nurses participated. The public predominantly characterised nurses with attributes such as friendliness, warmth, empathy and compassion. The mean socioeconomic prestige score assigned to nurses was 7.2/10 (SD 1.9), with Portugal having the highest score (M 7.5/10, SD 2.0) and Norway the lowest (M 5.8/10, SD 1.4; p < 0.001). Professional recognition experienced by nurses was generally low (54% indicated rather low, 17% very low). Slovenia, the Netherlands and Belgium had slightly higher mean scores (all M 1.4/3) compared to other countries (p < 0.001). High professional recognition could be predicted for 33% by work environment score (OR = 1.21; 95% CI [1.19–1.24]), work motivation score (OR = 1.02; 95%CI[1.01–1.02]), expertise outside the hospital (OR = 1.57; 95% CI [1.25–1.97]) and work experience (OR = 1.01; 95% CI [1.00–1.02]) corrected for country. Conclusion: The study highlights the need for targeted interventions to improve the professional and public image of the nursing profession while addressing disparities in professional recognition between countries. Longitudinal studies are recommended to monitor changes in public perception and professional recognition among nurses.
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Aim: Participation of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder hardly occurs in settings outside of home and school. Little is known about how their participation is influenced by environmental factors. This study explored how and why adolescents with autism spectrum disorder perceive aspects of their environment as facilitators or barriers to their participation outside of home and school. Method: This explanatory case study explored the participation experiences of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (15–21 years) from Zurich and surroundings with in-depth interviews and photo-elicitation, using photos made by the participants during activities outside of home and school. Data was analysed with a 7-step procedure. Result: The presence of two main themes seemed necessary to facilitate participation outside of home and school: “environmental prerequisites to attend activities”, which consists of five subthemes, such as “the company of trusted persons” and “the provision of knowledge and information”, and “social interchange and engagement”, which consists of three subthemes and describes how actual involvement can be supported. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the influence of trusted persons on adolescents with autism spectrum disorder, and the need to extend the support network for these adolescents to other individuals, services and society so that their participation in activities can be encouraged.
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In HyDelta 2.0 WP10 we found through literature research, four local case studies and stakeholder interviews that the public perception of hydrogen developments in the Netherlands is now generally positive, nevertheless fragile. The knowledge level of the general public is not high: both concerning the technologies, vision and goals regarding hydrogen applications in the Netherlands. This lack of knowledge increases the risk of misinterpretation of information or change of perception with false information. The knowledge level can be increased with central communication about hydrogen developments, the vision and goals around hydrogen and policies. Improving central communication to the public raises the knowledge level and helps local implementation by unburdening local participation processes, which are currently extensive with first hydrogen developments and pilots. However, the fact that the entire energy system and policy framework concerning this in transition, makes communication about hydrogen developments to the public challenging. Roles and responsibilities in the sector are subject to change and there is uncertainty about what the energy system will look like in the future. This makes it challenging to provide unified information about the position of hydrogen in the future energy system. The current uncertain position of hydrogen applications in the future energy system, in combination with unclear roles and responsibilities and long lead times of permit procedures, contributes to a challenging climate for market parties to make investment decisions.In task 10.1 we did a literature review about social acceptance of hydrogen. In task 10.2 we did interviews with stakeholders along the hydrogen value chain about the societal embeddedness of hydrogen in the Netherlands and in task 10.3 we did four (local) case studies, studying public support, communication and risk and safety perception. In task 10.4 we used the results of tasks 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3 to work towards three risk governance strategies for nine societal risks occurring in four main subjects: (1.) participation, (2.) communication, (3.) policies and regulations and (4.) decision making. These strategies focus on what participation processes could look like in the coming years, how communication to the public can be optimized and what role the government could take to accelerate the development of the hydrogen value chain in The Netherlands by enabling stakeholders. The risk governance strategies have been developed in a co-creation setting. The strategies can be enhanced and improved by working out a step-wise approach and testing them in use case scenarios’.
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Innovation is not what it was in the 20th century; the classic century of R & D based innovation. The nature of innovation is changing, only in part because different technologies dominate innovation. This paper identifies three main societal trends that are of major importance for strategic management of innovation in industry and for government industrial- and technology policies. These trends are: - Growing complexity - Globalisation - Citizen participation As a result, innovation strategy and technology policies cannot be determined by ad hoc technology push and market pull factors popping up. Strategic planning, not just of products and technologies but also of sites and alliances becomes increasingly important. Transparency and stakeholder dialogue require new competencies of the technology manager.
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