Defining social enterprise

"Social enterprise is charity’s web 2.0—a would-be revolution as open to interpretation as a Rorschach blot. If commentators agree on anything in regard to social entrepreneurship, it’s the lack of a consensus as to what the concept means."

That's the opening of a section from Is Social Enterprise Sustainable?, an article that I'm scheduled to present at the upcoming First International Conference on Social Entrepreneurship and Complexity. It's a subject I've been studying for years and am now scribbling out my conclusions in various forms. I'll link to the articles when I upload them in their entirety; in the meanwhile, every so often I'll post excerpts addressing key issues.

Such as the issue of defining social enterprise. Since taking my current gig as a professor of social entrepreneurship I've been "What is social enterprise?" about every other day, and truth to tell, it's a question I've had myself ever since I first heard the term. My approach to finding an answer has been more that of a historian than evangelist--confusing the two is a sure-fire way to get a result that pleases the partisans but overlooks key flaws.

Here is a summary of my conclusion--well, part of my conclusion anyway, as I explain at length in the rest of the piece. But that will be a matter for another day. For now, here's the sliced-and-diced initial section on defining social enterprise from an early draft; I'll serve up the rest, including references, in a couple or so weeks.