Recent year have seen successive British governments move social enterprise centre stage as a policy construct. Yet there remains little understanding as to whether this policy direction provides new opportunities for engagement for migrant and ethnic minority groups or acts to reinforce past processes of exclusion. This article addresses this issue by examining the nature and extent of migrant and ethnic minorities' involvement in social enterprise activity and the resulting implications for policy and practice. Through original empirical analysis of ethnic minority third sector organisations in East London, results are presented in relation to the challenges of defining and measuring this arena of activity, the nature of the current transition towards social enterprise forms, and the extent of engagement in the policy process. The paper concludes that the narrow arena of action for social enterprise activity as promoted within the current policy discourse provides little scope for engagement for the majority of small-scale ethnic minority organisations.
The solutions to the grand challenges of sustainability, poverty, and health affecting the world will require education and capacity building for all individuals implementing change on a global scale. The challenge ahead is to reach those missed by traditional education and support networks. Online Learning and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have the potential to build knowledge and share best practice experiences among individuals worldwide. This paper examines the case of the FutureLearn Social Enterprise Program, a series of MOOCs with over 50,000 registered learners, of which 15% become active learners, engaging in online exercises, debates, and conversations. This paper draws on quantitative and qualitative data collected over four years. The findings show that the course has not only had an impact on the creation of new startup social enterprises, but it has also supported a large proportion of learners in developing sustainability and social entrepreneurial ideas within a range of organisations in the public, private, and civil society sectors. The findings also show a positive cascading impact effect from the learners registered on the course to those in their network, as ideas are shared, and learners become mentors to others. Our conclusions demonstrate how digital education and online courses contribute to global education for sustainable development and social enterprise development.
Abstract:The institutional frameworks and contexts that support social enterprises and the growth of hybrid organisations in Sub-Saharan Africa require more concerted examination. Drawing upon a qualitative study, and examined through a framework of Postcolonial theory, this paper contributes to emerging discussions in this area through an investigation of the transformation of non-profit organisations (NPOs) towards the social enterprise model and exploring the impact of hybridity on the management of these organisations in Tanzania. The study suggests that NPOs mimic social enterprise 'best practices' to secure financial resources and integrate their traditional values into the social enterprise model creating tensions resulting from hybridity.
Upcycling is a type of practice included within the circular economy. Although interest in this type of activity has grown in recent years, academic analysis of the drivers that impel these activities is poorly developed. This work focuses on upcycling activities developed in the context of rural tourism. Through field work based on structured interviews applied in the region of Andalusia (Spain), evidence was sought about the drivers that promote this type of practice. In particular, attention was paid to the role of mobile applications as facilitators of upcycling. The main finding was that technology helps in using upcycling practices when considering rural tourism, as demonstrated by the use of mobile applications and websites such as Wallapop. There was also evidence of the different factors that drive the development of upcycling practices: the existence of a traditional social network as a means of obtaining second-hand items, technology as an element that facilitates access to items owned by strangers, the need to offer the image sought by tourists, and a desire to maintain the cultural essence of the region.
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