Year: 2010
Type: book
Abstract: Social enterprise has attracted increasing attention from policy makers, practitioners and academics over recent years and it has often been argued that there is a strong geographical dimension to the growth of social enterprise.However, the lack of reliable national level quantitative data about these organisations has prevented any rigorous analysis of geographical variations in their distribution.This working paper explores what can be learned from existing national surveys about the geography of social enterprise activity.These datasets are difficult to interpret and compare partly because of the lack of consensus about how social enterprise should be defined and partly because of different research frames.Furthermore, the statistical validity of the data is questionable, and in most cases relatively small sample sizes mean that regional level findings can be taken only as provisional and indicative.However, when considered in concert, some consistent findings emerge; London, for example, has a disproportionately high share of social enterprise activity, as, to a lesser extent, do the South West and North East regions.It is concluded that if the number of social enterprises varies significantly over space, it is more likely to be at smaller scales than regions, especially at the level of cities and local districts (e.g. between inner city, suburban and rural areas).We conjecture that the regional pattern of numbers of social enterprises is also likely to mask significant differences in their characteristics both across and within regions.
Authors: Heather Buckingham, Steven Pinch, Peter Sunley
Language: English
Subfield: Management of Technology and Innovation
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2171064834