Dr Eleanor Shaw was one of the speakers at the first meeting of the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship's newly-formed special interest group, Social & Sustainable Enterprise Network (SSEN).Dr Eleanor Shaw was one of the speakers at the first meeting of the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship's newly-formed special interest group, Social & Sustainable Enterprise Network (SSEN).
The meeting took the form of a day-long symposium on "Social enterprise and philanthropy: their role in the new Big Society", drawing together academics and practitioners from across the UK debating a range of issues around social enterprises and what they may be expected to achieve in the wake of the public sector cuts.
Dr Eleanor ShawSpeakers included Maggie O'Carroll, chief executive of The Women's Organisation and Steve Woodford, founder of Foundation, a charity formed to fight social exclusion. Dr Shaw discussed her research into the emergence of entrepreneurial philanthropy as a backdrop for how 'Big Society' may be played out by wealthy entrepreneurs. She said that entrepreneurial philanthropists may be able to play a key role in the 'Big Society' by providing social investment and/or by providing significant human, social and symbolic capital. She warned that the implications of a government-led approach to economic and social prosperity might however result in a desire to shape rather than implement policy.
Dr Shaw has also been asked to give a keynote and public lecture to mark both the opening of the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference and the close of the 2011 Innovation Lecture Series of Massey University, Albany Campus, New Zealand, on December 1.
Dr Shaw's talk will be "Entrepreneurial Innovation to Social Innovation: The role of the philanthropist". The Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference will be held from December 1-3 at Massey University.
While in New Zealand, Dr Shaw will be working with Professor Anne de Bruin, Director, NZ Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Research Centre, Massey University, on a special issue of the International Small Business Journal. They are guest editing the journal as well as working on a comparative study of entrepreneurship and social innovation.