| Summary: | Almost all social policy reforms that have been implemented in the last 20 years in all European countries present two major changes: 1) they widen the number and type of actors involved in social policy design, management, financing and delivery bringing about new governance arrangements; 2) they rescale the responsibility of social policies from the national state upwards (EU level) and/or – most frequently – downwards (regions, municipalities…). In this paper I will try to highlight the ambiguities this process brings about in the intersection between the role of the State (national and local), the implementation of subsidiarity and the need to innovate. I will highlight the importance of disentangling the context related elements of social policy innovation from those characterizing it in more general terms and underline the importance cities are gaining. In this frame the latter become again laboratories where the boarders of citizenship are made.
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