Frameworks for Social Enterprise Education: comparing the ARIADNE Project, ICA Blueprint, PRME Principles, Balance Diagnostics and FairShares Model

This paper examines the development of curricula to advance social enterprise education using the lens of critical management studies (CMS). It is motivated by ongoing work to develop a new award in Cooperative Business and... [ view full abstract ]

This paper examines the development of curricula to advance social enterprise education using the lens of critical management studies (CMS). It is motivated by ongoing work to develop a new award in Cooperative Business and Responsible Management at [University] as well as ongoing work to develop the use of Understanding Social Enterprise: Theory and Practice (Ridley-Duff & Bull, 2011; 2015). Five projects have influenced the authors’ conceptualisations of social enterprise and responsible management. In this paper, we take a framework developed by the ARIADNE project (Moreau and Mertens, 2013) and compare it to four other frameworks that have competed to shape our thinking. Whilst acknowledging the potential danger of ‘closure’ through the development of curricula that converge on normative values and principles, our work is aimed at destabilising a normative consensus by highlighting where dissensus exists. Guided by new research on ‘critical appreciation’ that explores the interaction between social systems and personal lifeworlds, we present ‘competencies’ as the potential system imperatives of social enterprise education, and the knowledge, skills and attitudes as proxies for the lifeworlds that it aims to create. By presenting multiple frameworks, we advance CMS by enabling institutions, academics and students to: 1) reclaim choice in how they shape and develop social enterprise courses; 2) develop a theory of social enterprise education that is reflexive regarding the impact of curricula, pedagogy and philosophy on social enterprise management education.