Master
2023/2024
Social entrepreneurship and social innovations
Type:
Elective course (Politics. Economics. Philosophy)
Area of studies:
Political Science
Delivered by:
School of Politics and Governance
Where:
Faculty of Social Sciences
When:
1 year, 3, 4 module
Mode of studies:
offline
Open to:
students of one campus
Instructors:
Alexandra Alexandrovna Moskovskaya
Master’s programme:
Политика. Экономика. Философия
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.
Learning Objectives
- Our task is to focus on the micro-level of the processes of social change that the "leaders of change" produce to solve the problems of socially vulnerable groups of the population from among social minorities. We will have to understand what stages the creation of social innovations goes through, how social entrepreneurs solve the problems of lack of resources, disunity of target social groups, overcome the resistance of established social institutions, find supporters and create support networks
Expected Learning Outcomes
- - to be able to apply theoretical concepts of “social innovation”, “social entrepreneurship”, “social exclusion and inclusion”, “social diversity” and “social justice” to the policy design and policy analysis
- - to be able to search for empirical evidence to policy development and change on the basis of practice of social enterprises and social innovation
- - to be acquainted with the cases of the best practices of social entrepreneurship and social innovation working with different socially vulnerable groups in different parts of the world
- - to master assessment tools of performance of social enterprise and social innovation in protection and empowerment of social minorities
- to be ready to informed use of the experience of social innovation and social entrepreneurship in the human rights related issues
Course Contents
- Introduction. The emergence of social entrepreneurship and social innovation
- Building a new solution, step 1
- Building a new solution, step 2.
- Building a new solution, step 3
- Building a new solution, step 4
- Development of economic mechanisms for a sustainable change
- Emergence of value network
- Institutional embedding and building 'new markets'
- Conceptualization of social innovations
- Social innovation and policy approach
Interim Assessment
- 2023/2024 4th module0.2 * Essay + 0.2 * Final exam + 0.15 * Seminar activity + 0.15 * Seminar activity + 0.3 * Special group task presentation
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Barreiro, T. D., & Stone, M. M. (2013). Social Entrepreneurship : From Issue to Viable Plan (Vol. First edition). New York, New York [222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017]: Business Expert Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=637789
- David Bornstein, & Susan Davis. (2010). Social Entrepreneurship : What Everyone Needs to Know®. Oxford University Press.
- Erpf, P., Bryer, T. A., & Butkevičienė, E. (2019). A Context-Responsiveness Framework for the Relationship Between Government and Social Entrepreneurship: Exploring the Cases of United States, Switzerland, and Lithuania. Public Performance & Management Review, 42(5), 1211–1229. https://doi.org/10.1080/15309576.2019.1568885
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Guo, C., & Bielefeld, W. (2014). Social Entrepreneurship : An Evidence-Based Approach to Creating Social Value. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=705924