Between tradition and change: the Scottish social economy sector at a crossroad

This paper discusses the origins and motives behind the rich institutional and policy infrastructure that Scotland has developed in previous decades to support the social economy sector. Drawing on a large body of primary data collected through an EU funded project this paper reflects upon the effects of the economic and financial crisis, and how such changes may shed light on the future of the social economy in Scotland

Squaring the challenge: reconciling business and ethical goals in social enterprises

The narrative surrounding social enterprise, both politically and theoretically, tends to emphasise a narrow definition and a set of expectations as to their role and meaning, generally reducible to organisations able to reconcile business and ethical aspirations. Policies devised to support the development of these organisations are generally based on the assumption that social enterprises have to be self-financing and that their developmental pathways lead to financial sustainability, generally achievable through trade. The experiences of organisations encountered in the course of this research contradict this view, instead highlighting the diversity characterising these organisations and the circumstantiality of their development pathways. It demonstrates that their ability to balance economic imperatives with social and environmental concerns is the product of negotiations and compromises, resulting in experimentation with what it is available in specific moments in time and place. Indeed the nature of the local environment and culture are found to play a crucial role in both the choice of institutional forms and in conditioning development that is more or less in line with an organisation’s ethos. When successful reconciliation occurs, it is the product of particular, place-specific circumstances, unfolding in the networks of relationships developed between a variety of actors from public institutions, businesses, local networks, activists, social movements and other civic groups, all working towards the same aim, whether this is doing business with a conscience or delivering public services with care. This thesis argues for a stronger commitment to economic pluralism, whereby expectations as to what social enterprises can achieve is rebalanced, informed by greater understanding of the plurality of forms that constitutes the social enterprise ‘constellation’ and their diverse potential. Only then can they contribute to more equitable or geographically even economic development

Self reliant groups from India to Scotland: lessons from south to north

There is a move towards partnership working across the global north and south but there remain questions about how to do it most effectively. This paper reports on the findings from a project that built a partnership between women in Scotland and India in order to transfer knowledge about Indian Self Help Groups. By creating peer to peer relationships that challenged traditional roles of 'teacher' and 'learner', the project was effective in transferring learning from south to north and generating meaningful outcomes for those involved. Despite the contextual differences, the successful transfer of key components of the model, savings, and loans, has led to a sense of empowerment in the Scottish women that is comparable to their Indian counterparts. As the project continues, it will be important that the dialogue between the partners continues, so there is ongoing learning as the Scottish groups expand and develop

Who cares? The social care sector and the future of youth employment

https://doi.org/10.1332/030557316X1477831216518

Two paths of social innovation in the post-pandemic world

Purpose The Covid-19 pandemic has initiated a period of radical uncertainty, resulting in impacts on a scale that has and will continue to transform economies and societies across various contexts. Social innovation resonates with the challenges the pandemic presents. This paper aims to address the question of which form of social innovation will be most pivotal in the post-pandemic world. Design/methodology/approach The paper has been developed by reviewing key literature on social innovation, with a specific focus on the most current contributions of Moulaert and MacCallum and Mulgan. Findings Social innovation is embedded in debates around social change but the “type” of social change that dominates the future of social innovation is connected to how social innovation interacts at different scales and with different actors engaged in shaping change in specific contexts. Building upon extant knowledge of social innovation we can hypothesise two paths of social innovation emerging/intensifying: one that seeks economic reform with an emphasis on meeting social needs in new ways and another that seeks complete systemic change. Originality/value This is a reflective piece that by reviewing current contributions to the social innovation literature questions the post-pandemic future of the field

'Utopia’ failed? Social enterprise, everyday practices and the closure of neoliberalism

In the context of recurrent economic crises, ‘alternative’ models of economic organising such as social enterprise offer compelling examples of utopian imageries of a better future ‘to come’. Social enterprise qua utopia implies not only that alternative ways of being and co-existence are desirable, but that there is often a disjuncture between the desirable futures such utopian imaginaries project and the extent to which they are actualised or even actualisable in practice. The UK, which has long been considered the most conducive environment for social enterprise activity, offers a fertile ground to study this tension between utopian imagination and empirical actualization. Drawing from three large-scale research projects focusing on the social economy in Scotland and the North of England, this paper explores the link between social enterprise as a political program and as lived material practices unfolding under conditions of extreme resource scarcity caused by austerity measures. Our findings reveal that whatever utopian impulse social enterprise might contain, it is constituted, in the last instance, in the movement between ideas and everyday life, i.e. the aggregate of mundane practices, routines and experiences. Attentiveness to the precariousness instigated through austerity measures, such as social budget cuts, the key contribution this paper makes is to jettison approaches that treat social enterprise as a context-independent and totalizing ideal that divorces its utopian potential from the everyday practices through which this potential is being realized