Rethinking Social Economy

Description

Organised by
Cambridge Business and Society Research Group
Watch the opening lecture in full.

Roberto Scazzieri (Professor of Economic Analysis, Economics, Bologna and CAMSHET – Cambridge History of Economic Analysis at Clare Hall) Connections, Reasons and the Social Economy.

Event convener 

Antonio Andreoni (University of Cambridge)

A one-day workshop in which leading scholars, researchers and practitioners in the fields of institutional economics, development economics and social entrepreneurship investigate the challenges, opportunities and the role played by various institutions in the realm of the Social Economy. Today's world of rapid and extensive transformation and financial crisis has rendered even more necessary than before the identification of innovative and effective tools in the struggle against poverty, underdevelopment and intolerable injustice. Tackling these challenges calls for a re-thinking of the role of the State, the market and of all those organizations which fall into the realm of the social economy.

The Social Economy comprises a wide and highly dynamic range of different organizational entities with social and environmental purposes, such as social enterprises, community development associations, micro-finance institutions and fair trade organizations. These institutional species which are neither in the public sector nor have the exclusive profit-maximizing objective that typifies the private sector may be potentially effective and complementary tools for the solutions of social, economic and environmental problems, both in developed and underdeveloped regions. The CRASSH workshop on Social Economy aims to investigate and provide critical perspectives on these new hybrids, and highlight the various contradictions and trends emerging in recent years.

In particular, the workshop will investigate three main issues:

•    Relational Approaches for Social economy
Is conventional economics sufficiently equipped for understanding the innovative practices developed by these institutional species?

•    Social Economy for Economic Development
In what ways has the social economy reshaped the development agenda at the international level? Are these institutions calling for the retreat of the State as the main provider of social welfare or, on the contrary, do they propose innovative and complementary strategies for solving social problems?

•    Social Entrepreneurship for Social Innovation
What hybrid organizational forms and models are social entrepreneurs developing to bring social value?

Finally all participants will address the role of the social economy in broader society. In what way are the tendencies of mission drift transforming and having a negative impact on the social performances of social enterprises? What are the risks connected to a mainstream-ization of the social economy?

Administrative contact Esther Lamb (Grad/Fac Programme Manager)