Social Enterprise, Social Innovation and Care
17-18 April 2013
Lindisfarne Centre, St. Aidan’s College, Durham University
We call for papers that explore the intersections of social enterprise, social innovation and care within the contemporary landscape of social policy, practice and governance.
Social enterprise and social innovation are widely touted as significant forces within contemporary governance. Much has been written on the tension between a business model and social value in terms of practical tools, management practices and ideological goals. However, there remains limited attention to the multiple meanings that inhere to the social, or caring, ethos claimed for these new entrepreneurial forms. The conference therefore aims to bring together researchers, and practitioners, engaged in interrogating and theorising the relations between entrepreneurial and innovative organisational forms and the multivalent nature of care and the practices of care – emotional, obligatory, collective, pragmatic, and so forth.
The conference key-note speakers are: Professor Marthe Nyssens, Department of Economics, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium; Kate Welch, OBE, CEO of Acumen Development Trust, Co. Durham; Chris Dabbs, CEO of Unlimited Potential, Salford; Professor Fergus Lyon, Middlesex University, Director of the Social Enterprise Research Capacity Building Cluster, Chair of the Social Enterprise Research Group, Third Sector Research Centre.
Potential areas of exploration include:
- Can there be an entrepreneurial model of care and what do they look like?
- What are the limits on and opportunities for entrepreneurial models of care?
- To what extent do social enterprise and social innovation constitute a way of thinking differently about how we care, whether as individuals, communities, solicited, or globally?
- What are the constraints on a caring practice of enterprise within different political ideologies?
- What tensions and issues must social enterprises negotiate in order to retain a caring ethos?
- However, this is by no means an exhaustive list, and we welcome submissions across a range of related themes.
Please send abstracts by end of Sunday 17th February, 2013 to Prof Sarah Atkinson. The conference will be held at the Lindisfarne Centre at St. Aidan’s College, Durham University. Accommodation can be booked at the College, or other Durham Colleges, through Event Durham.