SOCIAL ENTERPRISE
&
THE DEPRIVED
ABOUT US
Amy Blanthorn-Hazell
In my opinion, there is no definitive answer to the question ‘Is Social Enterprise a solution to deprived communities?’. After exploring this topic, it has become clear that although Social Enterprises do benefit deprived areas (think Grameen Bank, Enactus etc…) they are not necessarily a solution. In order to overcome depravity, the community culture needs to shift, which can only be achieved through collaboration of businesses, governments and social enterprises. Furthermore, there is a huge gap in the information on Social Enterprise failures. If Social Enterprises were more willing to discuss their own failures, they would be better equipped in the challenge of overcoming depravity.
Luke Thomas
It is my opinion that - certainly in my lifetime - our global understanding of ‘Entrepreneurship’, ‘Entrepreneurs’ and what it means to be ‘Entrepreneurial’ have shifted significantly, but my understanding of Social Entrepreneurship was vague. The context of Social Entrepreneurship in our topic of solving issues in deprived communities has been interesting; we often hear a plethora of success stories that would suggest that through social enterprise enablement, deprived communities can self-sustain. While true in some arenas, once you begin to deconstruct why such successes occurred and try to replicate them elsewhere you encounter problems. Moreover, we see very little material from the entrepreneurs who have suffered failed ventures, largely because the stakes are perceived to be far higher when creating social good than would be the case in a conventional profit-maker. While I believe social enterprise will continue to grow into a sector in its own right, the drivers behind this will continue to be questionable. In respect of its power as a solution, social enterprise has a place insofar as the positive impact it can have, but ultimately, it is difficult to see it as little more than a bridge where the state and marketplace fail to generate sustained and empowered communities through already established channels.
Max Thorpe
‘Is Social Enterprise a solution to deprived communities?’ In my opinion Social Enterprise is not the whole answer but it is one part of the solution. From our research we have found a number of instances in which Social Enterprise has helped to solve problems in deprived areas, but also cases where they have failed. Therefore, I believe that social enterprise is not suitable for certain problems in deprived communities and that there are other types of organisation which may be better suited in those circumstances. For this reason I believe that social enterprises should work with other organisations, such as local government, local businesses and charities, as part of a wider ‘social mix’. Therefore, social enterprise will continue to play an important role in helping derived communities but in a more collaborative structure. This, I believe, will mean that social enterprise will be more able to tackle the problems in deprived communities.
Adrian Lau
To me, according to my view and knowledge, I believe that social enterprise is the best solution to deprived communities. Compare with the private company which show cooperate social responsibility, they tend to be more focus on the profit which forecasted before. Social enterprise might tend to earn a lower profit but achieve their goal. Refer to the solution to deprived communities, sometimes there are barrier for private company to help and solve the problem over there such as resource limitation. To tackle those barrier might occur high value of investment which private company might not willing to pay. On the other hand, compare with the charity, I think social enterprise is more realistic in the society when they apply solution in deprived area
Nick Trevor
Social Enterprises appear to be a solution for a number of problems as a result of market, state and voluntary sector failure. However, I believe they are a tool that can be adopted as opposed to being an entity on their own. Therefore I believe social enterprises are only a choice of model that appeases the state with their apparent benefits. It is not the solution but offers a mechanism with which a solution may be achieved. Although, not all problems resulting from state and market failure can be mitigated by social enterprises. Causes must be tackled at root as opposed to offering a cosmetic solution for the collective.
Michael Tildsley
In terms of my views on whether social entrepreneurship is the solution for deprived communities I believe it is one solution that can benefit deprived communities if it is the run in the correct way. With deprived communities being such a broad term it would be foolish to paint each individual one with the paint brush that social entrepreneurship is the answer. For social entrepreneurship to really work you need to take each deprived communities’ individual needs and provide a solution based on that. Furthermore there also needs to be a condition for the social enterprise to exist in the first place whether that be from the state’s failure to provide a service for the community or in fact the economy itself is a social economy that encourages social enterprises to fill gap that public and private sector firms cannot. An example of this would be the Grameen bank which was set up to help individuals set up a sustainable business through the use of small short term loans. Therefore this shows that social entrepreneurship can be a solution for deprived communities, but the reason the Grameen bank was a success is because it understood the community’s needs and it was able to tailor a solution for them.
Johannes Jezek
In my opinion, a solution for deprived communities can only be provided by a good combination of public welfare projects, charities and social enterprises. In all the regions of the world a solution or improvement for disadvantaged and underprivileged people is depending on many factors such as culture, traditions and laws. There are endless cases where the government cannot ensure help. Here private action is needed. A social enterprise is in my opinion the best way to support sustainable solutions for deprived communities because, provided if they work, they are independent to assistance and sponsorship. As a result, social enterprises are able to keep up without any influence and dependency of goodwill and donators. But of course social enterprises are not able at all to come up with the solution in every case. In cases they fail or are not able to offer enough help and support, charities or governmental welfare is necessary to provide the required aid.