Social Entrepreneurship
Title: Societal entrepreneurship programme
8 February 2009, Sweden, Social Innovation, Social Entrepreneurship, Social Finance and Philanthropy, Government and Public Policy, Communities and Cities, http://www.samhallsentreprenor.se
The Knowledge Foundation sees societal entrepreneurship as a
key to the future. Sweden needs technological development – but
we also need new ideas for our housing estates, new ways of
producing and consuming that respect the environment and new
ways of providing public services and care: in short, we need social
innovations.
Many of our social solutions were built for the structure of the
industrial society, when borders were more important – borders
between nations, between the market and the public sector and
between work and leisure. The difficult issues that we face today –
such as the climate threat, migration and segregation, globalization
and unequal distribution – cut across borders. And they are too
complex to be solved by players acting on their own.
Username: ruimartins
Title: Leading Social Innovation
15 April 2010, Social Innovation, Social Entrepreneurship, Government and Public Policy
Even as the social entrepreneurship movement makes strides forward, the ultimate success of any single innovation faces the stark reality that no real market exists for promoting the growth of these innovations—which instead depend for scale more on a political economy than a market one.
Government shapes disruptive innovation as it dominates funding in most areas of social policy. Given the inherently political nature of public expenditures and a culture that rewards compliance while often ignoring the voices of clients, programs and policies that offer no evidence of success still remain funded year after year. Incumbent providers, confident of their intentions, naturally seek to protect their stake, while government bureaucracies protect these webs of invested interests in a variety of ways that keep innovative problem-solvers from breaking through and supplying better alternatives. Moreover, government sees its role as offering dependable responses that avoid risk. This view creates a culture that represses change and decreases the public’s acceptance of any innovation that might end up with less than perfect results.
How can an elected or appointed public official act as a civic entrepreneur in a way that unlocks transformative public value? The article highlights a case study from New York City, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg and School Chancellor Joel Klein generated space for reform in two bold ways—the creation of an innovation fund and the “open sourcing” of innovation, inviting social entrepreneurs to play an important role inside government structures.
Username: batotoyetu
Username: Sophia A. Horwitz
Username: hoiwai
