2024/2025

Social entrepreneurship and social innovations

Type: Mago-Lego

Delivered by: School of Politics and Governance

Open to: students of one campus

Instructors: Alexandra Alexandrovna Moskovskaya

Language: English

ECTS credits: 6

Contact hours: 40

Course Syllabus

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship and social innovation are two phenomena of the modern world that reflect new approaches to solving social problems and applying personal initiative. The target groups of such initiatives are often social minorities – refugees, homeless people, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, representatives of religious, cultural and other values and practices that are not shared by the majority of the population and for the implementation of which it is necessary to overcome institutional, cultural, economic and territorial barriers. The coexistence of people with different values often entails social risks, which increase with the concentration of people in cities. 50-100 or more years ago, the protection of social minorities was associated with ensuring equal rights for them before the law. Today, we know that the formal achievement of equal rights may not ensure equal opportunities and social justice. The very concept of social justice differs significantly in different groups of society. Moreover, the disadvantage is often supported by differences in economic life conditions and economic discrimination. That is why people need new innovative approaches cutting across organizational, sectoral or disciplinary boundaries In the modern world, more and more solutions are offered through private initiatives that are not explicitly political in nature and are based on the creation of the hybrid organizations and community building that combine solutions to social and economic problems, find non-standard innovative approaches to overcome persistent or complex problems (wicked problems).The goal of the course is to study of the characteristics and methods of social innovation and social entrepreneurship aimed at eliminating unfavorable condition of different social minorities and preventing their discrimination on the empirical base of successful cases in different places of the globe. The course combines theoretical conceptualization of the notions of “social innovation”, “social entrepreneurship”, “social exclusion and inclusion”, “social diversity” and “social justice” with empirical evidence of their practical implication to social enterprises and social innovation. They will also learn tools for creating and evaluating performance of social enterprise activities engaged in work with social minorities, to critically assess opportunities and barriers of the policy fostering social innovation and social entrepreneurship.