Social enterprises with environmental objectives: saving traditional orchards in England and Germany

Abstract

Social enterprises (SEs) re‐invest their profits towards a social mission. They have proliferated as post‐industrial economies try to meet social need with limited state funding. Scholarship has expanded accordingly, although SEs with primarily environmental objectives have been neglected. This article examines how SEs, in regions noted for wildlife‐rich orchards, fund nature conservation by marketing juice and/or cider, thereby attempting to revive economic possibilities for this traditional land use. A common thread between the SEs is their initiation by conservation organisations, and it is possible to group them within models of market intervention. Three models in particular are examined that reveal different approaches and degrees of success in orchard conservation. SE scholarship is marked by a wealth of case studies, and to avoid simply adding to this richness, the paper revisits Jens Beckert's ideas on the social order of markets. His theory that actors strive for stability through forms of co‐ordination in dynamic market ‘fields’ is applied to SEs aiming to produce positive conservation outcomes – or environmental order – from their market interventions. Within limits, social order advances understanding of environmental SE by identifying the multiple challenges they juggle, and revealing the environmental outcomes of SE engagement in markets.

Rural social enterprises in Europe: A systematic literature review

“…While others have looked at the social impact of these type of organisations (Dayson, 2013; Di Domenico et al., 2010; Macaulay et al., 2018; O’Shaughnessy et al., 2011). Lastly, some studies have investigated the environmental impact of social enterprises (Franks and McGloin, 2007; Keech, 2017). The second group of studies has a focus on organisational processes followed by rural social enterprises, such as the emergence and long-term viability of the enterprise.…”

“…through CO 2 reductions, increase of biodiversity, nature conservation, recycling, sustainable agriculture) and environmental awareness (e.g. through educational programs) are the two main impacts shown by the studies reviewed (Hudcová et al., 2018; Jacuniak-Suda and Mose, 2014; Keech, 2017; Ludvig et al., 2018; Thomas Lane et al., 2016). It is worth noting that several of the reviewed studies demonstrate that social enterprises deliver all and/or a combination of these different impacts (e.g.…”

Urban Food Democracy and Governance in North and South

“…In other words, fields can reveal the way power hierarchies generate reactions and challenges to hierarchies between actors (e.g. through competition), yet in some cases food networks actively avoid seeking power and instead seek to influence practice (Keech 2017).…”

“…This indicates the importance of the meso-level as the scale which connects linked individuals (thereby creating the collective) to macro flows and forces. It leads us to suggest, firstly, that there is scope to expand the use of sociological tools to study the collective actions of UFNS and, secondly, having experimented with such analytical tools to study both urban and rural networks of activists (Reed, 2016, Keech, 2017, we wish to further refine our attempts to situate UFNs within mesolevel arenas of collective action which seek change, by raising the question: can urban agriculture be framed more broadly as a field? Contact: Daniel Keech, CCRI, University of Gloucestershire, UK.…”

Wassail! Reinventing ‘tradition’ in contemporary wassailing customs in southern England

“…32 In recent decades, movements such as Common Ground, The Orchard Project and others have rejuvenated and established all new orchards to stimulate civic participation and provide community spaces. 33 In addition, changes in public attitudes towards food and drink production in the United Kingdom is also likely to have contributed to an interest in festivals surrounding fruit. Apple production in the United Kingdom has also soared on an industrial level with the rise in demand for 'premium cider' nearing £1 billion per year.…”