Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Rural Europe

ISBN-13: 9780815379973 / Angielski / Twarda / 2019 / 222 str.

Ralph Richter;Matthias Fink;Richard Lang

Opis

Social enterprises as change agents can break unfavourable routines in marginalized rural regions by fostering social innovation. In an international EU-funded research initiative, the authors create an empirical knowledge base for contextualized future interventions that tap the potentials of social enterprises in marginalized rural Europe. The target is to foster an awakening of social entrepreneurship in rural Europe. Marginalized rural regions across Europe face similar challenges. Compared to urban centres, such regions suffer from less economic productivity and a lack of qualified jobs. At the same time, less educational and cultural opportunities are provided. As a result, these regions experience outmigration, especially of young, well-qualified people. Without tailored intervention, rural regions are threatened to lose their connection with social and economic developments in Europe. Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Rural Europe introduces social innovation as a feasible strategy to energize development in rural Europe and to counteract the challenges of marginalized regions. Social enterprises play an important part in this, supporting social innovations by, for example, coaching young people in the development of entrepreneurial ideas and thus providing development impetus in structurally weak areas. In the proposed book, social entrepreneurs and researchers jointly reflect strategies and practices of social innovation broadening the understanding of the conditions for social innovations in rural Europe and enhancing the awareness for social enterprises among politicians and in society.

Spis treści

1 Rural Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Practice: Case descriptions  2 How Rural Social Enterprises Innovate and Sustain: Potentials and Challenges from the Research Perspective  3 Rural Social Enterprise: An Emerging Strategic Action Field  4 Practitioner’s Voice: Reflections on the Relevance of the Identified Measures for Rural Social Entrepreneurship Practice  5 Key Takeaways: Implications for Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Rural Europe