Social Enterprise: Towards a differentiated approach

1. Social Enterprise: Towards a differentiated approach Simon Teasdale Institute for Volunteering Research

2. Presentation Outline • Introduction • Tensions in Social Enterprise • Forms of Social Enterprise: A preliminary typology • Research Design • Selection of case study organisations • Findings • Implications for policy and practice

3. Introduction • My background in Social Enterprise • To what extent can Social Enterprise combat exclusion • All rhetoric, no reality • Need to differentiate between types of Social Enterprise

4. Why classify? • Different approaches to classification • Overlapping streams of literature • Co-operative • Social Business • Voluntary Sector • Community Sector

5. Tensions in Social Enterprise • Individual v Collective • Social v Economic • Forms of Social Enterprise: A preliminary typology

6. Forms of Social Enterprise: A preliminary typology

7. Research Design • Literature Review • Selection of geographic location • Mapping / Scoping Exercise • Case Study research • Themes for analysis • The multi-faceted social enterprise • Differentiated impact • Social Enterprise, Capital and Exclusion

8. Selection of case study organisations

9. Findings

10. The multi-faceted social enterprise (1) • Social Enterprises are seen as different entities by different stakeholders • Successful Social Enterprises are able to portray a different façade to different observers

11. The multi-faceted Social Enterprise (2): Global Theatre Productions Individual Ahmed Pounds People Jasmine Laura Collective

12. The multi-faceted Social Enterprise (3): Community Times Individual Sell advertising space ILM Pounds People Social Events Link Businesses together Collective

13. Different responses to tackling exclusion

14. Relationship between bridging and bonding social capital • Not easily distinguishable, people can bond or bridge across the same dimension e.g. ethnicity • Bonding develops as a response to exclusion from wider society • Develops in-group solidarity • Those involved in organisational capacity form links / bridges with other organisations and institutions • Where excluded people are involved in organisational capacity, bridging social capital benefits them directly • However, only benefits those with pre-existing advantage e.g. human capital • Bridging social capital can be used for individual or collective benefit

15. Implications for policy and practice • Social Enterprises aren’t always what they seem • Different forms of Social Enterprise have different impacts: • People-focused orgs generate bonding soc capital • Pounds-focused orgs provide employment • Collective-focused orgs develop bridging soc capital • Individual-focused orgs deliver services • A tendency to focus on what works (what can be counted) ignores smaller people-focused and / or collective orgs • My research suggests that it is democratic process which works in combating exclusion