Social innovation, social enterprise, and local public services: undertaking transformation?

This article discusses some of the challenges encountered in embedding effective and sustainable social enterprise and social innovation within established political institutional systems to deliver local welfare services. It draws upon evidence analyzing social innovation and social enterprise in Scotland to contribute to the debate over whether social innovations and social enterprises are able to meet expectations in addressing the significant challenges faced by welfare systems. The article clarifies the meaning of both these contested concepts and explains how social innovation and social enterprise relate to similar ideas in social and public policy. The evidence suggests that actually operating social enterprises and social innovations do not embrace the image of them promoted by enthusiasts as either “entrepreneurial” or “innovative”. Furthermore, they bring distinctive challenges in delivering local welfare services, including potential tensions or rivalry with existing public agencies. The article suggests that social enterprises and social innovations are not themselves instigators nor catalysts for systemic change, but that their impact is constrained by structural conditions and institutional factors beyond their control

Conceptualising the public health role of actors operating outside of formal health systems: the case of social enterprise

AbstractThis paper focuses on the role of actors that operate outside formal health systems, but nevertheless have a vital, if often under-recognised, role in supporting public health. The specific example used is the ‘social enterprise’, an organisation that seeks, through trading, to maximise social returns, rather than the distribution of profits to shareholders or owners. In this paper we advance empirical and theoretical understanding of the causal pathways at work in social enterprises, by considering them as a particularly complex form of public health ‘intervention’. Data were generated through qualitative, in depth, semi-structured interviews and a focus group discussion, with a purposive, maximum variation sample of social enterprise practitioners (n = 13) in an urban setting in the west of Scotland. A method of analysis inspired by critical realism – Causation Coding – enabled the identification of a range of explanatory mechanisms and potential pathways of causation between engagement in social enterprise-led activity and various outcomes, which have been grouped into physical health, mental health and social determinants. The findings then informed the construction of an empirically-informed conceptual model to act as a platform upon which to develop a future research agenda. The results of this work are considered to not only encourage a broader and more imaginative consideration of what actually constitutes a public health intervention, but also reinforces arguments that actors within the Third Sector have an important role to play in addressing contemporary and future public health challenges