Rhetoric as Consciousness? A Study of Engagement and Responsibilities in Social Enterprises and Humanitarian Aid

Social innovators’ resourcefulness, social entrepreneurs’ engagement, and volunteers’ charitable services are celebrated virtues among politicians, practitioners as well as scholars in these fields. With full respect and... [ view full abstract ]

Social innovators’ resourcefulness, social entrepreneurs’ engagement, and volunteers’ charitable services are celebrated virtues among politicians, practitioners as well as scholars in these fields. With full respect and appreciation of individuals’ valuable commitments, this paper elaborates on the relationship between these initiatives, the organization in which activities are conducted, other stakeholders in society including governments and global communities. The notion of responsibility is used to critically reflect on these celebrated virtues. The paper builds on two examples. Firstly, the increased attention to social enterprises as a mean to play a significant role in solving challenging wicked problems such integrating long time unemployed people into some kind of ordinary labour market characterized by competition – not only on the labour market but also what is sometimes an international competition from other enterprises even though the target groups at least partly consist of people with former drug abuse, different types of disabilities or more recently migrating people who has suffered from war and refugee related traumas. Funding for ‘initial training’ or ‘innovative projects’ are at least partly accessible. But sustainable models for pervasive wicked challenges are more elusive – also in a generally prosperous setting like North Europe. Secondly, volunteers play an important role in global humanitarian response. Out of approximately 17 million volunteers within the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, approximately 1 million volunteers work in countries where conflicts are ongoing and as many operate in other types of emergencies with significant security risks, eg. during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa 2014-2016 (IFRC Global Review of Volunteering 2015). Local volunteers’ knowledge of particular environments, their networks, and day to day experience of often rapidly changing environments is particularly significant in the context of the destruction of local infrastructure and services, as well as lack of capacity or willingness on the part of some national and international actors to be present in highly dangerous and unstable settings (World Disaster Report 2015). But how do international and national communities care for these volunteers during and after their volunteer services? This paper draws on literature on civil society (including volunteering) and empirical research of different types of social enterprises and recent emergency initiatives within the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, including references to interviews with local volunteers in conflict/emergency struck countries. The aim is to nuance and further our understanding of social enterprise and civil society’s role for people, organizations and socially sustainable communities. 

Keywords: Social enterprise, volunteering, humanitarian aid, responsibility, social sustainability