Social Entrepreneurship

Objective: explore the role of social entrepreneurship in development

Outcomes:

Starter: if social entrepreneurship is....

• About applying practical, innovative and sustainable approaches to benefit society in general, with an emphasis on those who are marginalized and poor.

• A term that captures a unique approach to economic and social problems, an approach that cuts across sectors and disciplines grounded in certain values and processes that are common to each social entrepreneur, independent of whether his/ her area of focus has been education, health, welfare reform, human rights, workers' rights, environment, economic development, agriculture, etc., or whether the organizations they set up are non-profit or for-profit entities.

• It is this approach that sets the social entrepreneur apart from the rest of the crowd of well-meaning people and organizations who dedicate their lives to social improvement.

...so what does it take to be a social entrepreneur?

1. There are different 'alternative' approaches to development that could be classed as social entrepreneurship. You need to understand the following:

• • 1. the work of microfinance organizations and their networks

    2. alternative trading networks such as “Fairtrade”

    3. TNC corporate social responsibility frameworks and global agreements

You will need to investigate and make brief notes on the following:

• • • the origins of the approach

    • how it works including its aims

    • on what scale it works - local / national / global

    • effectiveness related to its aims

    • the extent to which it is social entrepreneurship

You will share this in a 'market place' activity.

PLENARY: How do actions to support human development involve spatial interactions from local to global scales?