Publication details
Eco-social enterprises in practice and theory - A radical versus mainstream view
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
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| Description | Social enterprises have been studied from various perspectives, which can roughly be collapsed under the "mainstream" and the "radical". From the "mainstream" perspective, social enterprises are seen as complements to mainstream enterprises, mitigating poverty and inequality and enhancing employment and growth. From the "radical" perspective they are seen as alternatives to mainstream enterprises and as part of an alternative non-growing economy, based on co-operation, sharing and equity. The definition of eco-social enterprise depends on the definition of social enterprise, which in turn depends on authors perspectives. Based on research from Great Britain and the Czech Republic, we look at eco-social enterprises and discuss their forms and definitions from an explicitly "radical" perspective. We first give a generic overview of different types of eco-social enterprises, showing that not all of them exist primarily to provide goods and services and that many have combined ecological and social goals. We also suggest that social enterprises that have explicit ecological goals are more likely to have beneficial social impacts as well, while the reverse (explicitly socially oriented social enterprises with added-on environmental benefits) is less common. We then suggest a revision of the mainstream definitions of eco-social enterprise to include entities that do not aim at operating in the mainstream economy and those without a formal legal structure. We go on to discuss the structural aspects of social enterprises (share ownership rules, governance structure, not-only for profit character) that arguably give every social enterprise a potential green dimension, and finish with discussing five dimensions of an eco-social enterprise which might form the basis of a tentative sliding-scale definition (goal of activity, dimension of production/consumption process, scale and governance structure). |