Social entrepreneurship on the map
The field of social entrepreneurship has over the past five to ten years increasingly attracted public attention. Today dedicated organizations and foundations, online networks and innovation intermediaries, physical hubs and awards, competitions and TV series are promoting, supporting or paying tribute to social entrepreneurs from all corners of the world.
For example, international research, community-building and awareness-raising organizations like The European Research Network (EMES), the Geneva-based Schwab Foundation, the US-based Ashoka and Skoll Foundation, the UK-based Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship are some of the more established actors.
But also online networks like Young Social Enterprise Initiative, SocialEdge, and i-Genius and physical working spaces thaqt serve as social innovation incubators like the London-based The Hub, which is rapidly spreading to other parts of the world (most recently to The Hub Copenhagen), offer and share resources for practitioners and others with an interest in social innovation and social entrepreneurship.
In the media world as well the scope of social entrepreneurship is made visible. To name just a few initiatives, there is The World Challenge (you can still vote on your favourites until 12th November!) by BBC World News and Newsweek, Fast Company’s annual Social Capitalist Awards, CNBC’s The Good Entrepreneur, Deutsche Welle’s portraits of 25 social entrepreneurs as part of its Global 3000 programme and PBS’s critically acclaimed e2 series with stories about innovators and pioneers who envision a better quality of life, socially, culturally, economically and environmentally.
Which other initiatives do you know of that are promoting social entrepreneurship locally, nationally or globally? Please do add to the map!
Tagged | Ashoka, EMES, European Research Network, Global 3000, i-Genius, PBS e2 series, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship, Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, Skoll Foundation, Social Capitalist Awards, social entrepreneurship, SocialEdge, socially innovative business concepts, sustainable business, The Good Entrepreneur, The Hub, The World Challenge, Young Social Enterprise Initiative, YSEI
Great to have all these in one post. Would love to hear about any examples of the ‘innovation intermediaries’ that you spoke of?
Thanks,
Tim