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

Abstract

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.

Advancing a Contextualized, Community-Centric Understanding of Social Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

“…We underscore significant contextual influences of place, culture, and time, but also demonstrate the collective significance of agency and structure identified by Brown and Mason (2017) when the political economy perspective, essential to current understanding SEEs and EEs, is superimposed. Moreover, the contemporary “when” context of social enterprise and SEE development is inextricably intertwined with prevailing political agendas (Mazzei et al, 2021).…”

Retos del sector social de la economía en México: individualismo, desconfianza y dependencia

“…Actualmente, los emprendimientos de ess desarrollan un modelo híbrido de organización, en la que se busca la participación del mercado, la sociedad civil y el estado, para conformar una red de actores que permitan crear formas alternativas de organizar la economía, que beneficien a sectores marginados; valorando los objetivos sociales y la acumulación de capital al mismo tiempo, con la promesa utópica de generar un tipo de economía diferente, post o altercapitalista, con base a principios más Algunos autores destacan que la ess permite la construcción de capacidades sociales para satisfacer necesidades insatisfechas, a partir de formas de organización y gestión del trabajo y la producción, que promuevan soluciones laborales, de desarrollo y bienestar social, ante el desempleo estructural y la exclusión del actual contexto de mercantilización globalizada (Raffaelli, 2016). De ahí que el sector de la economía social ha aumentado su relevancia entre académicos y tomadores de decisión, en respuesta a los cambios globales de la sociedad actual Sin embargo, el ejercicio de la ess es dependiente y está condicionado por el contexto histórico, político, económico y social en el que se desarrolla (Mazzei, 2021), por lo que resulta importante documentar sobre qué bases se operacionalizan los proyectos políticos y de organización social en contextos específicos de austeridad, para reconocer las limitaciones y oportunidades de determinadas agendas, que ven en la ess una panacea para recuperar la economía y hacer frente a los problemas sociales, ambientales y tecnológicos de los territorios.…”

‘We need the activists to be more entrepreneurial’: Global versus local modes of thought on the development of social enterprise support systems in transitioning economies

“…The perceived benefit of social entrepreneurship is that it offers social actors an innovative model of economic organization, which allows them to benefit from the markets in support of their social goals (Mazzei et al., 2021). These processes are celebrated as one of the positive aspects of liberalism, championing individual agency and the capitalist recuperation of self‐help, thus challenging state‐centric approaches (Nicholls, 2007).…”

“…Despite these critiques, the continuing influence of neoliberalism has led to growing confidence in global actors influencing social action in emerging economies. An example of this is the promotion of social enterprise, hybrid third‐sector organizational constructs that use markets to deliver their primary social objectives (Mazzei et al., 2021; Nicholls, 2010). In the West, these constructs have been the beneficiaries of positive legislative, social and political environments, with governments seeing them as a cost‐effective and ideologically aligned solution to the delivery of public goods and social welfare (Cooney et al., 2016; Garrow & Hasenfeld, 2014; Kerlin, 2009; Ridley‐Duff & Bull, 2019; Staicu, 2017).…”