Social Innovation Social Enterprises And The Cultural Economy

Faced with a depleted planet and a series of connected crises, socially minded agents and entities within the world of culture and the arts are reacting from within. With insights from sociology, economics, and cultural management and policy, this book aims to chronicle the journey of SMart – a cultural and artistic social enterprise now present in eight European countries – in order to illustrate such organisation’s efforts to achieve its potential for social innovation and transformation. Tackling the endemic precariousness and intermittency of work through innovative arrangements for cultural workers and artists has been central to these efforts. In many cases, however, this activism not only had a direct impact at the level of individual and collective labour, but also has transformed the ways culture is ‘governed’. Readers of this book will better understand the connection between social innovation and culture and the arts; gain awareness of the trends and transformations within the field of culture and cultural work and their connection with institutional arrangements; and critically engage with the processes, challenges and benefits of scaling up and diffusing social innovation. The debates presented will be of relevance to scholars and students across disciplines, policy makers at both EU and national levels, practitioners and social activists.

"Faced with a depleted planet and a series of connected crises, socially-minded agents and entities within the world of culture and the arts are reacting from within. With insights from sociology, economics, and cultural management and policy, this book aims to chronicle the journey of SMart - a cultural and artistic social enterprise now present in eight European countries - in order to illustrate such organisation's efforts to achieve its potential for social innovation and transformation. Tackling the endemic precariousness and intermittency of work through innovative arrangements for cultural workers and artists has been central to these efforts. In many cases, however, this activism not only had a direct impact at the level of individual and collective labor, but has transformed the ways culture is 'governed'. Readers of this book will better understand the connection between social innovation and culture and the arts; gain awareness of the trends and transformations within the field of culture and cultural work and their connection with institutional arrangements: and critically engage with the processes, challenges and benefits of scaling up and diffusing social innovation. The debates presented will be of relevance to scholars and students across disciplines, policy makers at both EU and national levels, practitioners and social activists"--

This is a handbook for the cultural entrepreneur, offering some of the best examples on practice, franchises, research, innovation and business opportunities in the cultural sector. The key theme is the contribution and possibilities of the cultural economy as a business, with a strong supporting subtext on innovative practice. The book illustrates the theme by providing multiple practice-based and empirical examples from an international panel of experts. Each contribution provides an accessible and easily accessed bank of knowledge on which existing practice can be grown and new projects undertaken. It provides an eclectic mix of possibilities that reinforce and underscore the full innovative and complex potential of the cultural economy. Topics include a review of the global and regional economic benefits of the cultural economy, evidence-based analysis of the culture industries, and an outline of the top ten cultural opportunities for business. This collection transcends the space between theory and practice to combine culture and innovation and understand their importance to a wider economy. This is essential reading for researchers and practitioners interested in entrepreneurship, non-profit management, art and visual culture, and public finance.

This book provides comprehensive and advanced analysis of the characteristics of social entrepreneurship in Europe. It offers innovative, up-todate research on the ecosystems of social entrepreneurship, the behavior of social entrepreneurs, their ability to produce social innovation, social capital and social inclusion, and the role of stakeholders in fostering socially oriented businesses. Moreover, it addresses the diversity of the European social enterprise sector from an evolutionary perspective, with particular reference to the rise of social entrepreneurship and the role of new-generation social entrepreneurs throughout Europe. Multidisciplinary contributions authored by experts from business and accounting, economics, and sociology serve the purpose of delivering a holistic study of social entrepreneurship, also providing the necessary data for delivering policy implications on the features of the most effective enabling social and institutional ecosystems. The broad approach, based on different theoretical frameworks and methodologies across numerous disciplines, enables the authors to tackle all of the complex research issues connected to social entrepreneurship in the region. The book builds on the results of the European Union 7FP (European Union’s Research and Innovation funding program for 2007–013)-funded “EFESEIIS – Enabling the flourishing and evolution of social entrepreneurship for innovative and inclusive societies” research project. The central theme of the book is an evolutionary perspective on the dynamics and the rise of the social enterprise in Europe. This evolutionary perspective can be used in an economic as well as a social longitudinal analysis of changing contexts and entrepreneurial practices. The evolutionary perspective will be used as a tool to account for the specificity of developmental pathways in different contexts and countries.

"The aim of this thesis is to explore how in a context of economic, political, social and environmental transitions, SMart, a cultural and artistic social enterprise (CASE), has developed a relevant model to contribute to mitigate the structural labor precariousness of artists and creators. We study SMart as a solution emanating from within the cultural sector that is also able to address other challenges related to changing notions of the role and place of artists and creators in society. Social enterprises emanating from and active in the cultural sector constitute a specific institutional arrangement that offers innovative labor arrangements for cultural workers and artists to fight against precariousness. Social enterprises are embedded in the social and solidarity economy and stand at the crossroads of markets, civil society, and the public, which places them in a critical position: depending on the logic, actors, and contexts at play, social enterprises can ensure to varying degrees the general interest through their social mission, their sustainability via the real participation of all their stakeholders and the carrying out of economic activities that are fully consistent with their mission. It is within this type of sustainability and participation that transformative social innovation can emerge. Even though they already existed under different forms and names, social enterprises began to be noticed by public administrations in Europe three decades ago and they developed firstly under the auspices of policy-makers as a result of their effectiveness in tackling the needs of disadvantaged groups. More recently, groups of citizens working for the general interest across various activity areas or within transitions-enabling initiatives have also embraced the transformational potential of social enterprises. Culture is one of the activity areas where CASE are appearing despite the difficulty of articulating innovation and culture in a way that facilitates social transformation for all citizens. The thesis is divided into seven chapters and includes four annexes. The introductory first chapter begins by setting up the context for the research, namely the challenges that 21st century transitions pose for culture and how cultural actors are articulating viable and sustainable responses in response to those challenges. The case study proposed, SMart and its expansion or geographic scaling-up process throughout Europe, is then presented. The five research objectives driving the research and the hypotheses associated to two of them are then described. The methodology used is introduced at this stage although a detailed account of the research design is included in Annex 1. The next three chapters describe the main notions and theories that frame the research: social enterprise and social innovation (chapter 2); the intricate relationship of social enterprise and (social) innovation with culture and the arts (chapter 3); and the diffusion of (social) innovation, with an emphasis of the adaptation and replication of social enterprises (chapter 4). Chapter 5 dives into the source or mother social enterprise (SMartbe) at the heart of the expansion process under study. It also summarizes the main stages involved in the launch of the European platform, SMarteu, gathering the various national SMart offices in nine countries. The chapter ends with an evaluation of the scaling up strategy based on the statistical analysis of the data. Chapter 6 opens with the set of criteria applied to select the three country cases (Austria, Spain and Hungary) and is then divided into the contextual general analysis and the description of the national SMart implementation efforts. The institutional framework analysis in the three countries describes the development of civil society, the third sector and social enterprise as well as the cultural field. Each country analysis ends with some conclusions about the context and the repercussions for the launch of SMart. Then each national SMart experience (SMartat, SMartib, and SMarthu) is described at length emphasizing its history, the functioning and services offered, and reflecting on the lessons learned and prospects for the future. The last chapter gathers the discussion and main conclusions of the research. The main research objectives and questions are reviewed and discussed and so are the specific lessons learned from the SMart case about the potential of the cultural sector for adapting possible solutions to contexts different to the ones where they originated. Then, some recommendations both for policy-makers at EU and local level and practitioners follow, including for SMart members, umbrella organization in the field of culture and social and solidarity economy organizations. Lastly, a discussion about limitations of the research and possible contributions is offered with a view on suggesting some valuable avenues for future research efforts." -- TDX.

In the absence of a widely accepted and common definition of social enterprise (SE), a large research project, the "International Comparative Social Enterprise Models" (ICSEM) Project, was carried out over a five-year period; it involved more than 200 researchers from 55 countries and relied on bottom-up approaches to capture the SE phenomenon. This strategy made it possible to take into account and give legitimacy to locally embedded approaches, thus resulting in an analysis encompassing a wide diversity of social enterprises, while simultaneously allowing for the identification of major SE models to delineate the field on common grounds at the international level. These SE models reveal or confirm an overall trend towards new ways of sharing the responsibility for the common good in today’s economies and societies. We tend to consider as good news the fact that social enterprises actually stem from all parts of the economy. Indeed, societies are facing many complex challenges at all levels, from the local to the global level. The diversity and internal variety of SE models are a sign of a broadly shared willingness to develop appropriate—although sometimes embryonic—responses to these challenges, on the basis of innovative economic/business models driven by a social mission. In spite of their weaknesses, social enterprises may be seen as advocates for and vehicles of the general interest across the whole economy. Of course, the debate about privatisation, deregulation and globalised market competition—all factors that may hinder efforts in the search for the common good–has to be addressed as well. The first of a series of four ICSEM books, Social Enterprise in Asia will serve as a key reference and resource for teachers, researchers, students, experts, policy makers, journalists and other categories of people who want to acquire a broad understanding of the phenomena of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship as they emerge and develop across the world.

Microlending programs for low-income microentrepreneurs have become a global priority since the development of the Grameen Bank in 1976 and the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations in 2015. Inspired to create their own microlending program, the deans of the schools of social welfare and business at the University at Albany were aided by the university's Small Business Development Center and the State Employees Federal Credit Union. This led to the creation of the Small Enterprise Economic Development (SEED) program. Following this, new faculty were hired in the School of Social Welfare and the School of Business to address social entrepreneurship and lead these initiatives. The impetus for this book emerged from these developments including three forums in which national and international contributors participated in workshops, panels, and chapters for this book. These forums were co-organized by the School of Social Welfare, the School of Business, and a new Center for the Advancement & Understanding of Social Enterprises (CAUSE) at UAlbany. Building on the example set by UAlbany, Social Entrepreneurship and Enterprises in Economic and Social Development explains how and why we should integrate social entrepreneurship and social enterprises with economic and social development. While this global movement varies in pace and scope, the volume features snapshots from countries and regions representing nearly all continents, including Albania, Argentina, Cuba, India, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Russian Federation, Taiwan, Tajikistan, and Tanzania. One of the lessons is that social policies are critical for supporting social entrepreneurs since environmental, economic, and social sustainability are core goals of these initiatives. The chapters in this volume offer different contextual frames ranging from social enterprise business plans and measured entrepreneurial orientation to displacement dynamics (and how to avoid them) and the pitfalls of non-market economies. The contributing authors examine a variety of ventures and social policies to showcase how nations are supporting social enterprises as they attempt to meet human needs and achieve financial sustainability. The resulting volume provides a rationale for, and snapshots of, social enterprises and entrepreneurship in transitioning nations.

This book investigates the remarkable growth of the 'third sector', focusing on social enterprises, their characteristics, their contribution and their future prospects.

Innovation and Scaling for Impact forces us to reassess how social sector organizations create value. Drawing on a decade of research, Christian Seelos and Johanna Mair transcend widely held misconceptions, getting to the core of what a sound impact strategy entails in the nonprofit world. They reveal an overlooked nexus between investments that might not pan out (innovation) and expansion based on existing strengths (scaling). In the process, it becomes clear that managing this tension is a difficult balancing act that fundamentally defines an organization and its impact. The authors examine innovation pathologies that can derail organizations by thwarting their efforts to juggle these imperatives. Then, through four rich case studies, they detail innovation archetypes that effectively sidestep these pathologies and blend innovation with scaling. Readers will come away with conceptual models to drive progress in the social sector and tools for defining the future of their organizations.

This book explores social innovation and entrepreneurship in China. Focusing on selected social enterprises and processes, it addresses the question of "why China?", not in terms of military, economic or political ambitions, but in the terms of social innovation and welfare policies. The analyses range from detailed ethnography to discussions of broad global trends. Despite vastly improved social conditions in the country, there are still unresolved issues that social enterprises address. The study elaborates on the complexities involved in their positioning between the state and their beneficiaries. Adding to the complexity is China’s dual system of circulation and the moral economy of ethnic minorities. The theoretical foundation of the study is the Durkheimian concept of the social contract. Its content is viewed as comprised of Maussian total social facts or guanxi, a similar Chinese framing, operationalised to particular socio-cultural configurations. The empirical cases document how social enterprises reposition elements in the various configurations in order to mobilise resources from their stakeholders. The book concludes that the discursive topology is altered in the process and the social contract is renewed in culturally meaningful, if paradoxical, ways. This book will be of interest to researchers, students and academics in the fields of business and social entrepreneurship, especially to those with a particular interest in the Chinese case.