I thought that my blog could be another way of recording the coming 12 months, when I am expected to collect all sorts of interesting data. So I'll try to stick to that pupose. One feels tempted, however, to just moan and write about other less specific things, such as budget cuts, the real nature of community engagement or the claimed efficiency of certain right-wing led democracies. The activism of the social coolness (laid-backism, bacaneria in Spanish) as my friend calls it.
I have finally decided what the research question that will guide my fieldwork will be. How do social enterprises contribute to different types of innovation? This question can be understood in both a narrow and a broader sense. Narrowly, it refers to the innovations that take place (emerge? spark?) within organisations, be it products, processes, services, paradigms, positions, user-led, funding-led etc innovations. In a broader sense, it refers to the claim that social enterprises play very important roles within more encompassing processes of social innovation.
The literature review conducted this far refers contantly to the need to build the evidence base around the processes, the how, the mechanisms that facilitate or hinder innovation. I hope to be able to capture the diversity of innovations that can be found within the social economy, as similar processes have been well studied and documented in both the private and the public sectors. Although struggling not to be biased, I already know that I will find stillborn innovations, silent, invisible, intangible contributions to solve social problems, incremental and radical new ideas that lead to social change, major transformations and brilliant examples of how everyday actions can help to improve people's lives. The fieldwork conducted this far suggests that innovation means different things in different contexts, and that trying to operationalise the concept is like hitting a hard wall.
Aimed to be a critical examination of those pervasive claims about the innovativeness of the social enterprise sector/movement/whatever, I am secretly dreaming with challenging my own disbelief through an ethnographic study.
I, in essence, mistrust the portrayal of social enterprises as ideal vehicles to regenerate communities and revitalise economic activity. While some of them do it, on a contextualised, local scale most of the time, the majority of SEs that I know are indeed struggling to function, to break even, let alone to grow, reach scale, think about their impact or innovate. But I shall not let my previous experience be the only screen through which I see this task. I shall forget that out of the 21 SEs that I have advised closely, only 4 are trading in open, competitive markets. I shall remind myself that, historically, economic activity has been socially embedded.
Wednesday 20 October 2010
Saturday 16 October 2010
Theories of change
Sun is shining...the weather is sweet...Make you want to move your dancing feet
To the rescue, here I am....
This is what I was listening this morning while getting ready to meet my friend, a very committed community development worker that deserves her own blogspot (to come). Sun was shining indeed. There was nothing special about our plan. We were going to have lunch together in a nice ethnic restaurant inside Brixton Market. Then we were going to head towards a young people's project that she co-founded some time ago. The group meets regularly, but their main activities take place on Saturdays most of times. The core group comprises nearly 40 youngsters, 15 of which belong to the steering group that meets every week. Well publicised activities and special events attract something between 60-80 itinerant members. They all keep coming even if they don't manage to participate as often from other more regular activities. These numbers are impressive, as any youth worker can confirm. The young people have started to consider developing a social enterprise as a result of a very organic learning process in which they have developed some artistic skills and more impressively, they have started to generate income. That story will also be featured separately.
Anyway, nothing special in going on a Saturday afternoon to have lunch in an ethnic restaurant, I thought. Except for the fact that the restaurant's owner has a picture of her with Prince Charles. She is wearing her apron in the picture. At first I thought it was a joke. But then they told me that Prince Charles is the Patron of Brixton Market. I still need to double check that fact. But being the Patron or not, he went there and hugged the chef, if that category applies. She cooks there, but she also owns the place, takes decisions and manages financial affairs. Her sons work there as waiters. It is an ethnic, family business.
Brixton market has hit the headlines a lot recently. There has been controversies around the decision to sell some of the covered arcades to private developers, who were, obviously, thinking about 'redeveloping' the area (that is, building a residential tower block and a PRIVATE park, above a new market building). The following summary was extracted from the Wikipedia entry:
"In January 2009 London and Associated Properties employed communications company Four Communication to undertake a survey of local opinion. Concerns were raised on the Brixton Community website Urban 75 that the survey was one sided, only available in English.Friends of Brixton Market, traders and residents ran a successful campaign against the proposals[4].The Friends' proposal for Listing was strongly supported by the Twentieth Century Society. In April 2010 the Secretary of State of the Department of Culture (DCMS) announced that the government had overturned its previous decision not award heritage protection to these three arcades and declared all three Grade II listed buildings. They were listed by virtue of their cultural importance and contribution to the social and economic history of Brixton, particularly since the 1950s as one of the principle hearts of the Afro-Caribbean community in London, as well as for their architectural importance since such arcades, once more common, are now rare."
If you are still reading, you will notice that one of the reasons for overtuning the redevelopment is the fact that the market is considered of cultural importance particularly in relation to the history of the Afro-Caribbean Community.
Well...
I am sad to announce that even if the opening of a new starbucks has been delayed temporarily with the obstruction of the 'new market building' project, change has already taken place.
Right in front of the ethnic restaurant, there was a Rasta trader of music, clothes and artefacts who shut down his business two weeks ago. He could not keep up with the increased rent. Delve a little more, and you will notice the many new boutiques that have opened. Venture to go into one of the new cafes selling fussion food and snacks, and you will see that most of the people inside are reading the Guardian.
I have nothing against Guardian readers (like me), except the fact that I hate feeling so comfortable amongst them. The new coffee shop that claims to sell the best coffee in London, probably does.
But Brixton, dear friends, was never a white middle class market. Brixton, as my partner couldn't help but saying, is the new Borough Market. I give it 6 months for someone to start selling overpriced olives in there. The wikipedia entry also says that 'the market sells a wide range of foods and goods but is best known for its African and Caribbean produce, which reflect the diverse community of Brixton and surrounding areas of Lambeth'. It is precisely that, the diverse community of Brixton and surrounding areas of Lambeth which is endangered with this process, that I prefer not to name. Which side is Prince Charles on, I have no clue.
I am very white and very middle class. I know that most of the new traders might have been attracted to the area for its diversity. But how can they not distroy it? How can we, as human beings, like something and end up imposing something completely different on it?
When is change desirable? How can change happen even if it has been officially hindered?
Is cultural loss the inexorable price of change?
Change for what?
By the time I left, sun was not shining anymore. Seriously.
Anyway, nothing special in going on a Saturday afternoon to have lunch in an ethnic restaurant, I thought. Except for the fact that the restaurant's owner has a picture of her with Prince Charles. She is wearing her apron in the picture. At first I thought it was a joke. But then they told me that Prince Charles is the Patron of Brixton Market. I still need to double check that fact. But being the Patron or not, he went there and hugged the chef, if that category applies. She cooks there, but she also owns the place, takes decisions and manages financial affairs. Her sons work there as waiters. It is an ethnic, family business.
Brixton market has hit the headlines a lot recently. There has been controversies around the decision to sell some of the covered arcades to private developers, who were, obviously, thinking about 'redeveloping' the area (that is, building a residential tower block and a PRIVATE park, above a new market building). The following summary was extracted from the Wikipedia entry:
"In January 2009 London and Associated Properties employed communications company Four Communication to undertake a survey of local opinion. Concerns were raised on the Brixton Community website Urban 75 that the survey was one sided, only available in English.Friends of Brixton Market, traders and residents ran a successful campaign against the proposals[4].The Friends' proposal for Listing was strongly supported by the Twentieth Century Society. In April 2010 the Secretary of State of the Department of Culture (DCMS) announced that the government had overturned its previous decision not award heritage protection to these three arcades and declared all three Grade II listed buildings. They were listed by virtue of their cultural importance and contribution to the social and economic history of Brixton, particularly since the 1950s as one of the principle hearts of the Afro-Caribbean community in London, as well as for their architectural importance since such arcades, once more common, are now rare."
If you are still reading, you will notice that one of the reasons for overtuning the redevelopment is the fact that the market is considered of cultural importance particularly in relation to the history of the Afro-Caribbean Community.
Well...
I am sad to announce that even if the opening of a new starbucks has been delayed temporarily with the obstruction of the 'new market building' project, change has already taken place.
Right in front of the ethnic restaurant, there was a Rasta trader of music, clothes and artefacts who shut down his business two weeks ago. He could not keep up with the increased rent. Delve a little more, and you will notice the many new boutiques that have opened. Venture to go into one of the new cafes selling fussion food and snacks, and you will see that most of the people inside are reading the Guardian.
I have nothing against Guardian readers (like me), except the fact that I hate feeling so comfortable amongst them. The new coffee shop that claims to sell the best coffee in London, probably does.
But Brixton, dear friends, was never a white middle class market. Brixton, as my partner couldn't help but saying, is the new Borough Market. I give it 6 months for someone to start selling overpriced olives in there. The wikipedia entry also says that 'the market sells a wide range of foods and goods but is best known for its African and Caribbean produce, which reflect the diverse community of Brixton and surrounding areas of Lambeth'. It is precisely that, the diverse community of Brixton and surrounding areas of Lambeth which is endangered with this process, that I prefer not to name. Which side is Prince Charles on, I have no clue.
I am very white and very middle class. I know that most of the new traders might have been attracted to the area for its diversity. But how can they not distroy it? How can we, as human beings, like something and end up imposing something completely different on it?
When is change desirable? How can change happen even if it has been officially hindered?
Is cultural loss the inexorable price of change?
Change for what?
By the time I left, sun was not shining anymore. Seriously.
Friday 15 October 2010
First blog ever..and so what?
Dear reader and diary,
I have wanted to set up a blog for a long time yet I always wondered: about what? I happen to be in a very weird point in my life where I have lots of spare time, thousands of papers/books to read and analyse, a couple of social ventures that really shake my soul, a lovely, intelligent child that conquers my heart with her voice and a double personality. I am working and generating income yet I shouldn't (as I have a scholarship to study full time), and I am studying when I should really be doing what I do best: transforming lives, on a very small scale, through full time jobs.
I have an endless list of things to do, friends to catch up with, e-mails to write and pounds to shed. But none of those things will happen in the foreseable future.
In a sense this new, full time, fully paid student personality has allowed me to remember what I am made of. Music, tarot, incense, creativity and dreams. In another way the guilt grows exponentially as praises come in and academic milestones are achieved when I know that I have not done anything for anyone.
One year has already passed and I need to start my fieldwork. I thought it would be good to have an electronic record of my adventures in the social enterprise world. Join me ocassionally if you want to know what role social capital plays in fostering innovation within the social economy. I might never find out, but we shall have fun in the way.
This confusion is what I call my very personal hell.
I refuse jobs but I don't want to miss a thing. I work hard to promote social cohesion and live in a mixed tenants building yet I hate my neighbours when they urinate the lift. I am a very unstable, happily married woman and mother that sometimes cries like a girl. I am very young yet I worry about my emerging lines. I try to be green but I clean my bath with Domestos. I miss my city, which is surrounded by 7 rivers and I want to change my country but I might never go back. I have a very insane passion for plans, and for knowing what will happen in the foreseable future, yet I am engaged in a never ending PhD. I think I am fragile but I am getting used to hit the walls of my unfulfilled resolutions. Through the darkest moments, I have always been strong. I shall keep looking for those opportunities to grow and to embed solidarity, to teach.
'Perhaps the mission of those who love humankind is to make people laugh at the truth, to make truth laugh, because the only truth lies in learning to free ourselves from insane passion for truth'
Welcome to Maria's hell.
I have wanted to set up a blog for a long time yet I always wondered: about what? I happen to be in a very weird point in my life where I have lots of spare time, thousands of papers/books to read and analyse, a couple of social ventures that really shake my soul, a lovely, intelligent child that conquers my heart with her voice and a double personality. I am working and generating income yet I shouldn't (as I have a scholarship to study full time), and I am studying when I should really be doing what I do best: transforming lives, on a very small scale, through full time jobs.
I have an endless list of things to do, friends to catch up with, e-mails to write and pounds to shed. But none of those things will happen in the foreseable future.
In a sense this new, full time, fully paid student personality has allowed me to remember what I am made of. Music, tarot, incense, creativity and dreams. In another way the guilt grows exponentially as praises come in and academic milestones are achieved when I know that I have not done anything for anyone.
One year has already passed and I need to start my fieldwork. I thought it would be good to have an electronic record of my adventures in the social enterprise world. Join me ocassionally if you want to know what role social capital plays in fostering innovation within the social economy. I might never find out, but we shall have fun in the way.
This confusion is what I call my very personal hell.
I refuse jobs but I don't want to miss a thing. I work hard to promote social cohesion and live in a mixed tenants building yet I hate my neighbours when they urinate the lift. I am a very unstable, happily married woman and mother that sometimes cries like a girl. I am very young yet I worry about my emerging lines. I try to be green but I clean my bath with Domestos. I miss my city, which is surrounded by 7 rivers and I want to change my country but I might never go back. I have a very insane passion for plans, and for knowing what will happen in the foreseable future, yet I am engaged in a never ending PhD. I think I am fragile but I am getting used to hit the walls of my unfulfilled resolutions. Through the darkest moments, I have always been strong. I shall keep looking for those opportunities to grow and to embed solidarity, to teach.
'Perhaps the mission of those who love humankind is to make people laugh at the truth, to make truth laugh, because the only truth lies in learning to free ourselves from insane passion for truth'
Welcome to Maria's hell.
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