A look at the different approaches to Social Enterprises

This last week I attended a conference #SES2020, Social Economy Scientific Conference, thanks to @ Gorgi Klevi who made me aware of it through LinkedIn. The perks of LinkedIn, you keep abreast with what is happening in your line of work, if used appropriately of course.

I was really impressed with the discussions that went on. These discussions where held so as to help influence policy making for the European Union in the coming years with regards to the Social Economy. I picked a lot of interesting ideas 💡 which could also be implanted in our continent Africa, and one that spoke to me greatly was on the inclusion of education about the social economy which is inclusive of social enterprises in the traditional syllabus in High school and in Tertiary education. That really spoke to me and I actually figured this is something that would not be so difficult to implement in my country considering we have already implemented entrepreneurship at Tertiary Level, sneaking in a module on the social economy should not be too hard or is it? Thanks to Dominika Wruk, Assistant Professor for Sustainable Entrepreneurship from the University of Mannheim and Marthe Nyssens, Professor of Social Economy at UCLouvain who gave a comprehensive talk on this and other very constructive suggestions. Education can really push for the successful implementation of the social economy as through education, people understand what they are working towards, how to do it and thereby implement it well. That was a small digression........

Back to today’s article, lets educate people on the social economy and social enterprises as advocated for at the conference 😜. So I am going to talk more about the different approaches to the social economy focusing on social enterprises and their origins.

As defined in my last article, –A social enterprise has generally been defined as an organisation that applies commercial strategies to pursue social and/or environmental ends. This may include maximising improvements in human and environmental well-being alongside profits for external shareholders or for the sustainability of the organisation.

Originating from The United States of America, is the term Social Entrepreneurship, –Social entrepreneurship emphasizes the role of ‘social entrepreneurs’, presenting them as change makers, playing the role of change makers in their sectors Hence we have organisations such as the Ashoka and Skoll Foundations who work on assisting individuals who are interested in social entrepreneurship and showing great potential by providing support for them in terms of mentoring, capacity building and at times assistance in acquiring impact investments so that they reach their best levels in making change in their sectors.

The term Social Economy which i was using in the first paragraphs originated in Europe. It focuses on collective enterprises such as co-operatives and group-based initiatives that are established for the attainment of social and economic objectives,ensuring inclusion and equality principles. According to the OECD, social economy organisations activity is driven by values of solidarity, the primacy of people over capital, and a democratic and participative governance. Also in Europe but specifically in the United Kingdom,is were the term Social Enterprise is promoted by policy makers and practitioners.

From Latin America, we have the term Social and Solidarity Economy. This term refers to a model of political and socio-economic development based on principles of solidarity, participation, cooperation. Not so different from the European social economy. As opposed to neoliberal development approaches and economic models centred on self-interest, profit maximisation and consumerism, the social and solidarity economy focuses on participation and cooperation and mostly socio economic development.

It therefore really is dependent on which geographic area one is coming from or decides to lean towards when talking about issues to do with making a significant social impact whilst also looking at economic development. All the terms lead to the same outcome, finding a way of living in a society whereby business is not solely focused on profit making but considers other aspects of the society in this case being the environment and the social impact hence there is talk of inclusiveness and equality in some of the definitions . It however is important to take into consideration the aspect of sustainability as a major push factor in having these models. The world wants to find a way to address the problems that continue to cause havoc in a way that is financially sustainable and leads also to behavioural change and understanding amongst people of the fact that as individuals or corporates, we can chase both profits and social impact and loose nothing but actually gain a lot more.

Having covered the different approaches to Social Enterprises, im wondering what i will be talking about next week. There is a lot that needs talking about. At times one gets confused. I guess i have to leave it till next week to see what it is that i will cover on social enterprises. Till next time............