Igangværende Ph.d. projekter ved Center for Socialt Entreprenørskab
Arbejdstitel: Solidaritetsøkonomi og værdiskabelse i sociale virksomheder
Socialøkonomi som begreb dækker i dag bredt og omfatter ganske forskellige organisationsformer og værdisæt, heriblandt kooperativer inden for det sociale område, selvejende institutioner, frivillige organisationer og sociale virksomheder. Gennem etnografiske casestudier forsøger dette Ph.d. projekt at belyse, hvorledes sociale virksomheder italesættes som en del af en aktuel, socialøkonomisk diskurs og velfærdspolitisk udviklingstendens , og samtidig ses der på, hvordan værdiskabelse konstrueres og praktiseres i forskellige sociale virksomheder.
Projektet bygger på kvalitative metoder og analyseredskaber, og med inspiration i poststrukturalistiske traditioner, i særlig grad interaktionismen, fokuseres på den betydningsproduktion som skabes i de konkrete møder mellem aktører og kontekst. Det empiriske materiale vil således blive genereret gennem interviews, dokumenter og deltagerobservation i udvalgte sociale virksomheder.
Vejleder
Lars Hulgård
Kontakt
Nye læreprocesser i frivillige, sociale organisationer
Ph.d. projektet er et pædagogisk-antropologisk projekt, der gennem multi-sitet etnografi undersøger sammenhængen mellem mellem non-monetær, social økonomisering og læreprocesser i forbindelse med socialt entreprenørskab og frivillige organisationer. De konkrete cases er Fountainhouse’s ungdomsprojekt ”Bogstøtten” i København og ung-til-ung projektet ”City Year” i London.
Afhandlingen har som formål at undersøge hvordan forskellige, men sameksisterende, værdiopfattelser og komplekse forhold i frivillige organisationer påvirker læreprocesserne i konkrete, kulturelle kontekster.
Vejleder
Linda Lundgaard Andersen.
Kontakt
Organization, innovation and markets strategies in public-social enterprise partnerships
In the PhD project I analyse and discuss the hybridity of social enterprises (SE) which often seem to be in opposition to organisational traditions within the public sector. Different organisational cultures present a number of interesting research points, e.g. organisational culture and identity, motivation, management and entrepreneurism.
Definitions of social enterprise are many, and the starting point in my approach is the European research network, EMES' nine ideal criteria. Social entrepreneurship is thus something which includes social value, innovation, the third sector and economic activity. SEs are often in the middle of contested fields between private, public, for-profit, non-profit. The diverse organisational forms paint a picture that is equally unclear, as SEs may be self-governed, cooperatives, owned by private funds etc. This makes the definition of the field blurry, and perhaps we should not attempt to define SE, as this may cause the exclusion of initiatives that are productive but fall astray if a specific definition is used. In this breath I use the concept of hybridity as a theoretical basis for the project, in order to analyse SE both as an entity itself and as a way to understand the organisational field between SE and public organisations. Hybridity as a concept draws on an understanding of the world, which is composed of a mixture of multiple dimensions.
I use informal-, semi structured-, and focus group interviews, which seek to provide insight into socio-cultural positions, norms and social interaction. Additionally, I perform organisational analysis, focusing on the interaction between public policy and social enterprises, which will contribute to current research on mechanisms in the third sector. In the project it is also relevant to use policy and document analysis to elucidate public sector processes and organizational cultural traits.
Supervisor
Lars Hulgård
Contact
Christian Franklin Svensson
Contexts in which Social Entrepreneurship emerges. Genesis of Social Entrepreneurship
The PhD thesis has a research subject and focus attempting to develop a sociological analysis of a form of social action in the shape of social entrepreneurship defined as a problem solving initiative. The thesis explores what kind of situations and circumstances – both external, in terms of institutions and internal, in terms of motivations and drive in a combination propel the social entrepreneur or the group to create social enterprises. The aim of the investigation is to explore and explain how and why certain individuals/groups create/generate innovative responses/ solutions - understood as social entrepreneurship - to social issues/problems. Social entrepreneurship has been conceptualized as innovative initiatives with a social mission to solve social problems. The research questions are: How does social entrepreneurship emerge? What are the triggers? – including a theoretical and empirical framing of the institutional environment including policy and funding provisions offering both facilitation and resistance to entrepreneurial behavior, the personal or group motivations of the social entrepreneur - or a core group - that unfold in the context of a set of stakeholders who have some issues and problems to solve. This has led to the developing of the following prepositions: 1/Social entrepreneurs work towards a clearly expressed social mission, 2/ they create multiple values – social, economic and other types of values for their stakeholders, 3/ they access a mix of resources – grants, donations and revenue streams generated by business activities and 4/ they seldom act alone but work within an organizational context. GK has done a number of English and Danish empirical case studies of different social enterprises and beginning the analyses of these.
Supervisor
Lars Hulgård
Contact
Participation in micro-enterprise programmes in industrialised economies: a study of peer group lending strategies
The PhD thesis is about how to generate socio-economic change by adapting a particular model, the peer group lending model, originating from Grameen Bank and Accion in the context of micro enterprise development in three western industrialised countries: USA, UK and Norway. The research is based on empirical findings from fieldwork in 5 different peer group lending micro-enterprise development (microfinance) programmes (MFPs) in Norway: Hordaland Network Credit (part of the European Equal Credit Project) and The Women’s Bank National Network, USA: Capital Works (Delaware) and Project Enterprise (New York), and UK: The Full Circle Fund of WEETU, a Norwich based organisation.
A comparison of the five programmes are drawn to show how participation in these micro-enterprise (microfinance) programmes has led to various types of change for micro-businesses as well as the overall quality of life of the respondents. Indicators used are among others: Level of participation, number and amount of loans, quality of services, networking among members, personal and business development and change.
The research in the thesis has been carried out as exploratory case studies with qualitative review of various stakeholder’s view of the role and function of peer group lending as financial- and social intermediation. The thesis focus on some characteristics of peer lending in high-income economies in the North, and discuss under what conditions peer lending may function and what are strategic and programmatic factors that makes peer lending more or less effective.
Supervisor
Lars Hulgård
Contact
”Why do stakeholders collaborate” – a case analyses of Niger.
This phd thesis directs its attention to “why do stakeholders collaborate” trying to establish why different stakeholders come together to partner with NDDC, to develop and deliver public services and infrastructure in the Delta Region of Nigeria. The site of research is in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria, adopting the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as case study to explore the dynamic of partnerships in the Delta Region. The thesis has originally developed from a stakeholder model (Freeman, 1984) as the theoretical framework for establishing why, and under which circumstances different stakeholders come together to work in partnership.
According to the model, the direct-action environment is made up of, “stakeholder” – individuals or groups that are directly or indirectly affected by an organization in pursuit of its goals. The model further maintains that the roles stakeholders play may change as organizational environments evolve and develop. Furthermore the thesis research work were planned to adopt “situational logic” as its theoretical proposition. The fieldwork and subsequently initial data analyses crystallized the weaknesses of “situational logic” approach and fertilized the need for another theoretical framework to be developed. For this development as well as the further writing up of the thesis and enrollment in the Graduate School of Lifelong Learning as well as collaboration with the Centre for Social Entrepreneurhip has been pursued.
Supervisor
Roger Spear
Contact
Arbejdstitel: Om mikroinnovationer og at måle social værdi i det innovative civilsamfund
Phd-projektet er casebaseret og undersøger de sociale innovationer, der kan opstå i co-produktion mellem frivillige og professionelle i organisationer og / eller virksomheder, der er involverede i socialøkonomiske aktiviteter. Projektet tager sit afsæt i praksisforskning og formålet er at undersøge og understøtte innovationer, der peger i retning af overskridelser af marginalisering. Dette gøre med udgangspunkt i tre cases, der hver repræsenterer forskellige måder at organisere det sociale arbejde. Endvidere behandles spørgsmålet omkring dokumentation og evidens i det sociale arbejde; både i forhold til, hvilke betydninger et øget krav om dokumentation får i den daglige praksis, men også med henblik på at udvikle nye måder at dokumentere på, der kan fungere som udnerstøttende for yderligere innovation.
Vejleder
Linda lundgaard Andersen