Who Are The Social "Entrepreneurs" and What Do They Actually Do?

There is increasing interest in the social entrepreneur and the process of social entrepreneurship. This has led to criticisms of fuzziness surrounding these concepts. This paper explores the concept of the social entrepreneur, considering whether social entrepreneurs can really be termed "entrepreneurs" or if they are something else - individuals motivated by meeting social objectives to achieve social change. Drawing on structuration theory, we place the agent (a social entrepreneur) in the structure (a social system/the context), arguing that they are engaged in a process of co-constructing the current momentum in social entrepreneurship development

The epidemiology of regional and widespread musculoskeletal pain in rural versus urban settings in those ≥55 years

Objectives: To examine whether the prevalence of regional and chronic widespread pain (CWP) varies with rurality and to determine the characteristics of persons in rural locations in whom pain is found to be in excess. Methods: Participants, aged ≥55 years, from participating general practices in seven different geographical locations in Scotland were sent a postal questionnaire. The 1-month prevalence of 10 regional pain conditions plus CWP was identified using body manikins. Differences in the prevalence of pain with differing rurality were examined using Chi2 test for trend. Thereafter, among the rural population, the relationships between pain and putative risk factors were examined using Poisson regression. Thus, results are described as risk ratios. Results: There was some evidence to suggest that the prevalence of CWP increased with increasing rurality, although the magnitude of this was slight. No large or significant differences were observed with any regional pain conditions. Factors associated with the reporting of CWP included poor general health, feeling downhearted most of the time and selected measures of social contact. Factors independently associated with CWP included female gender (risk ratio: 1.24; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.997–1.55), poor self-rated health (risk ratio: 3.50; 95% CI: 1.92–6.39) and low mood (risk ratio: 1.54; 95% CI: 1.07–2.20). Also, having fewer than 10 people to turn to in a crisis was associated with a decrease in the risk of CWP – risk ratio: 0.68 (95% CI: 0.50–0.93) and 0.78 (95% CI: 0.60–1.02) for those with 5–10 and <5 people, respectively. Conclusions: This study provides no evidence that the prevalence of regional musculoskeletal pain is increased in rural settings, although there is some evidence of a modest increase in CWP. Risk factors for CWP are similar to those seen in the urban setting, including markers of general health, mental health and also aspects of social contact. It may be, however, that social networks are more difficult to maintain in rural settings, and clinicians should be aware of the negative effect of perceived social isolation on pain in rural areas

Can social enterprise contribute to creating sustainable rural communities?: using the lens of structuration theory to analyse the emergence of rural social enterprise.

Recent public policies increasingly emphasize the role of communities in service co-production. Collaboration between the state and the public is frequently associated with social enterprise activities. However, the assumption that social enterprises can be successfully built and developed in remote and rural areas might be faulty. Current policy does not recognize contextual factors relating to rural social enterprise development. Drawing on a qualitative study in the Highlands of Scotland the article questions the role of social enterprise in creating sustainable rural communities; it presents promoters and barriers to rural social enterprise development. Findings suggest that although rural communities do not control all the conditions that affect them, they have the ability to adapt to some structural features. This means that in spite of social and economic challenges, rural communities might benefit from rural social enterprise through practising ‘adaptive capacity’. </jats:p