Space and Social Entrepreneurship

Dr Muki Haklay Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, UCL [email protected]

Dr Lea Esterhuizen Head of Research, UnLtd [email protected]

Eric Samuel – Community Food Enterprises

• Community Food Enterprises runs food projects in East London to improve the health of residents in some of the most deprived wards in the UK.

Outline

• An a-spatial conception of social enterprise?

• The power of mapping social entrepreneurs ...

• ... And the limits • Thinking more deeply about space and place • Why is space particularly important to social entrepreneurs?

• Examples from UCL/UnLtd project • Locating social entrepreneurs – what’s next?

The a-spatial conceptualisation

• Social Enterprise – like business, doesn’t need to be tied to a location; part of a global economy • Emphasis on replication – what works here, works anywhere • Raising investment funds depends on the vision of replication • Same applies to large support organisations for social entrepreneurs

Ashoka’s Impact indicators

• Original vision • Independent replication • Policy Influence • Leadership building • Ashoka Leverage

The power of mapping Social Entrepreneurs

• We understand the area that Eric is working in • We see where he came from • We can map the places that he reaches • We can contextualise the work of individual

social entrepreneurs vis-a-vis other socio economic factors

IS THAT ALL?

What don’t we know and understand about Eric as a Social Entrepreneur and the spaces in which he works?

What we don’t know

• We know nothing about the spatial and temporal evolution of the project • We know nothing about the activities and how and where the social interactions happened • We know nothing about the influence of Eric’s project on other people and other places • And what about outcomes and impacts?

• But we do know that space and place played a very important role in his story...

For Space – a wider conception of space

• Doreen Massey’s ‘For Space’ 2005 • Space should be understood through multiple ‘stories-so-far’ or intersecting trajectories • Our notion of space is always incomplete and constantly changing • Unlike the ‘common sense’ conception that time is dynamic, but space is static – actually, in order for political/social changes to be possible, space must not be static – but open

Gap Minder

Space and Social Entrepreneurs

• Social Entrepreneurs are creating or highlighting new social and political spaces • They are introducing a social context into the world of business (and vice versa) But...

• They are bounded by / responding to a particular physical environment • Early start social entrepreneurs are predominantly focused on meeting local needs

Space features in their motivation ...

“I personally have never had community - A stable community. If you go back a long way I grew up in Germany on Army bases so I moved around a lot. So when I came England and went to University I began to discover the community realm and that I really liked being a part of that. Connecting with lots of different people, different ages, totally different backgrounds to me. And I realized I wanted to put some roots down and learn about what community meant to me - even if it is something I can take with me, like skills of being involved with communities” (Transcript 50, 04:04)

Space in project description

“Specifically Leicester based. I mean if we can get it really working in Leicester there is nothing to stop it moving if we can identify an area, if we have contacts in a different area, but at this moment in time I think we need to make sure we have got control here” (Transcript 24, 157:157)

Space in anticipated impact

“I want to try and keep it as close to my own home as I possibly can, ‘cause I feel it’s important to work within my own community, so mostly negotiating open-space development within my own community and looking at local training providers and seeing if there’s anything that we can offer from that perspective. But my wider community is really sort of Nottinghamshire then East Midlands, I sort of draw the line at East Midlands. But the closer to home, the better really.” (Transcript 22, 22:22)

Locating social entrepreneurs – what’s next?

• Interest in effects of social entrepreneurs/social enterprise, not merely location • Mapping the Story = where (why)? -> how? -> what effect? (Economic, social, environmental, financial) • Use this understanding to target support , identify networks, and make a case • Develop nuanced understanding of the role of the social and spatial in social entrepreneurship/enterprise