Value and economic conceptions of the new social economy leaders
Thematic Line:
9. Social and solidarity economy, civil society and social movements
The traditional economy used to look separately at the "social" and the "economic". Economic decision making was made with little consideration of its social effects and vice versa (Defourny & Develtre, 1999).
After years of swinging the pendulum between the "social" and the "economic", a new concept has been introduced that has spawned a variety of new organizational frameworks: social enterprises, social investment funds, crowd funding, social entrepreneurship and so on (Mook et al., 2015). De facto, these frameworks combine the "social" and the "economic", and suggest an alternative economy (Markey & Roseland, 2016; Helbing, 2015). In this study, we refer to these organizations as the new social economy.
The ideology/ies that stand behind the developing new social economy have not yet been formulated. It is not clear if indeed the new social economy ideas reflect a balancing system and new concepts about how the connection between the "social" and the "economic" should be (Nicholls & Teasdale, 2016).
In this study we explore the values of the pioneers and leaders of the new social economy in Israel. What values motivate them to be active in this new field? What belief-systems do they hold? What is their conception of the society and the economy? Revealing these values will help better understand the factors that affect decision making in determining policy, growth of organizational frameworks and management characteristics of the new social economy organizations.
We conducted in-depth interviews with 14 leaders of the new social economy in Israel; these included entrepreneurs, policy makers in the field, funders and managers of social enterprises. The interviews were semi-structured and the focus was on the interviewee's concept about terms such as: social, socialism, solidarity economy, capitalism, community, sharing, participation, self-growth, ambition, altruism, etc.
Preliminary findings show four main themes that demonstrate the ideal concept in different circles of the individual’s life. Using social psychology theory (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2014) and system theory (Mouzelis, 2016), the themes are explained and discussed:
A. The individual and his self: Respondents emphasize their need of "interest and challenge".
B. The individual and the connection to his/her immediate surroundings: Respondents reveal combination of egoism and altruism.
C. The individual and society: Respondents’ concept of what is a moral and good society and what are the community’s and civil society’s responsibilities to create a better society.
D. The individual and the state: The state's responsibility for a new social-economic method.
A major finding of the study focuses on the ability to combine "social" and "economic". Respondents combine the different worlds of ideas. For example, they argue that they can be moral and utilitarian simultaneously; or they use their need of interest and challenge to do good for others. At the same time, they understand that it is a privilege in a post materialistic world to work at a challenging and socially rewarding place (Inglehart, 2016).
The main conclusion of the study is that similar to the dualism of this new field, the value base of the leaders of this new field is also characterized by a mixture of values.
The theoretical contribution of this research is the use of the positive psychology theory that talks about the pursuit of meaning, involvement and pleasure (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2014), in explaining the ideal concept of the new social economy. Understanding individual needs and markets needs can explain the concept of "mixed this and that" or "both" discussed in the paper.
Refrences
Defourny, J., & Develtere, P. (1999). The social economy: the worldwide making of a third sector. Social economy North and South, 17-47.
Gidron, B., Abbou, I., Buber-Ben David, N., Navon, A. and Greenberg, Y. (2015) “Social Enterprise in Israel: The Swinging Pendulum between Collectivism and Individualism”, ICSEM Working Papers, No. 20 (forthcoming).
Inglehart, R. (2016). After Postmaterialism: An Essay on China, Russia and the United States: A Comment. Canadian Journal of Sociology, 41(2), 213-222.
Markey, S., & Roseland, M. (2016). Scaling Up: The Convergence of Social Economy and Sustainability. Athabasca University Press.
Mook, L., Whitman, J. R., Quarter, J., & Armstrong, A. (2015).Understanding the social economy of the United States. University of Toronto Press.
Mouzelis, N. P. (2016). Back to sociological theory: the construction of social orders. Springer.
Nicholls, A., & Teasdale, S. (2016). Neoliberalism by stealth? Exploring continuity and change within the UK social enterprise policy paradigm. Policy & Politics.
Seligman, M. E., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). Positive psychology: An introduction (pp. 279-298). Springer Netherlands.
9. Social and solidarity economy, civil society and social movements
