Soci(et)al Entrepreneurship (PDF)

This e-book contains 5 papers on social and societal entrepreneurship. Jan Donner addresses one of the most prominent issues in the debate on social entrepreneurship, i.e. the issue of profit versus non-profit making schemes involving private versus public funds. Lundqvist and Williams attempt to deal with the conceptual confusion in the field of (social) entrepreneurship by proposing an integral approach. The paper by Hervieux et al. represents another attempt at dealing with the conceptual confusion, not by creating a unifying concept, but by analyzing more in-depth a number of seemingly divergent logics relating to 'social entrepreneurship' and related concepts. Maase and Bossink make an attempt at grounding the concept of social entrepreneurship in empirical data. Starting from the premise that social entrepreneurship indeed distinguishes itself from other forms of entrepreneurship, the authors analyze a number of empirical cases of social enterprises in the startup phase, in particular in the field of public-private partnerships. Finally, Dey and Steyaert provide a critical reflection on and an attempt at conceptually advancing the notion of social entrepreneurship by showing its political import in the ways in which social entrepreneurship is currently narrated, in particular in relation to development aid.