Despite the role capitalism and the free market economy have played in the unprecedented prosperity registered in the last fifty years around the world, both, capitalism and the free market are on trial. The intensity of the... [ view full abstract ]
Despite the role capitalism and the free market economy have played in the unprecedented prosperity registered in the last fifty years around the world, both, capitalism and the free market are on trial. The intensity of the current economic crisis is not helping at all. We are living through a decisive period in human history. Rampant inequality and a deep democratic deficit persist worldwide. Innovation and the use of new technologies in every aspect of life clash or merge with vicious political practices and existing economic interests. Education, innovation and creativity seem to be our best option to transform this deficit into a surplus.
A new social and economic paradigm founded over the principles of a renewed economic discipline, one that takes into consideration the actual social and environmental cost –even if marginal– of prominent economic activities. This paper argues in favor of such renovation by focusing on the new and virtuous discourse created by the notion of Social Entrepreneurship, not only as a viable manifestation of this new paradigm but as a powerful tool to prevent the recurrent and devastating crises caused by greed and short sighted capitalist manifestations. The paper is also an opportunity to reflect on the role of universities and institutions of higher education in the development and promotion of this set of values. So the paper draws on two different, yet connected research questions: Is a new economy for the common good (as coined by Christian Felber) actually possible? And if so, what is the role of universities and institutions of higher education in the shaping and understanding of new paradigms for the world economy?
Today’s global flow of capital, services, goods, people, images and communication reflect the multiple angles and complexities related to the security and development of human beings around the planet. The prosperity and well-being of one person, one community, one nation, rests on the decisions of many others –sometimes fortuitously, sometimes precariously, but always decisively.
Social businesses and related concepts complement the notion of state-oriented security by enhancing the idea of basic human rights and strengthening the virtues created by being able to live happy, healthy and sustainable lives. So is it viable for Universities to help reinvent the global economy? Can they provide the tools for the construction of a new way to conduct business, a new way to teach and to think about economics (as Manfred Max-Neef and other economists urge us to do)? Will they be capable to reshape our current understanding of the free market economy? If there is a tacit recognition of free market economics and certain basic capitalist principles as the most efficient way to generate sustainable solutions to existing collective needs, how are we going to insert the need for a more conscious capitalist model?
Social Entrepreneurship is not an attempt to substitute the government or to take over its responsibilities. Instead, a social enterprise identifies the potential of private business opportunities in some of the social or environmental needs that traditionally have been considered to be the responsibility of states, or that have been abandoned to the mercy of aid or private philanthropy. The magnitude of the challenge, the endemic poverty that exists along the scope of influence of every free market and the inevitable democratic deficit this inequality generates, call for non-conventional, ‘out of the box’ solutions.
This paper reflects on some of these unconventional alternatives. The effective construction of a new paradigm requires a new logic and epistemology in the fields of finance, economics, development or business administration. The role of colleges and universities in this endeavor becomes fundamental.
