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- Convenors:
-
Edward Dixon
(The University of the West Indies (Mona Campus))
Richard Hull (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Roxanne Persaud
Robert Berry (Aston University)
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- Location:
- N4 (Richmond building)
- Start time:
- 6 September, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/London
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
The panel welcomes perspectives on issues of pursuing sustainability through new ways of organising economic activity for developing markets in the Global South. It grapples with the issues they face, their work with Multi-nationals and how these interactions revise notions of sustainability.
Long Abstract:
The SDGs are imperfect but provide an important justification for progressive market-based interventions, instead of traditional Corporate Social Responsibility or Inclusive Business initiatives 'targetting' BoP markets. Increasing interest in the Social and Solidarity Economy is coming together with voices from the Global South advocating post-development and South-based epistemologies, the feminist economics work on Diverse and Community Economies, P2P-related approaches to the Commons, the Degrowth movement, work in the sociology of markets on Concerned Markets, and anthropological studies of the human economy and globalisation from below. All focus on new understandings and practices in organising economic activity for local benefit rather than for elites.
Many initiatives, especially in the Global South and for instance based on 'Buen Vivir' are developing their own grassroots responses to the need for sustainability. This panel welcomes both 'problem-solving' and 'critical theory' perspectives on the opportunities, challenges and contradictions raised in pursuing sustainability through new ways of organising economic activity, whether production, consumption or participatory methods for developing local markets.
What sorts of issues and compromises do social and community enterprises face in balancing financial viability with positive social and environmental impact? Can they push for more progressive notions of sustainability? What dangers and possibilities are opened up by working with aid donors, large corporations or impact investors to develop locally-based social and community enterprises? How are understandings and practices of sustainability, markets and economic activity being revised and redefined to suit local contexts, especially in the South?
Accepted papers:
Session 1Edward Dixon (The University of the West Indies (Mona Campus)) Richard Hull (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Paper short abstract:
Through a descriptive case study approach, the paper uses the Actor-Network Theory to understand the emergence, evolution and resourcing strategies of charitable actors in the Creative and Cultural Industry in Jamaica.
Paper long abstract:
The ANT approach has been criticised for its perceived suitability as a social theory (Krarup and Blok, 2011), with its genesis in the natural sciences and opposition to macro-level analysis of social phenomena disqualifying it from engaging the 'social' (Bennett, 2007). The criticisms have extended to its applicability to culture, with its detractors arguing that the approach is 'culture blind' (Entwistle and Slater, 2014).
A deeper examination however, shows some interesting connections between our understanding of ANT and the cultural sector, such as ANT's anti-structuralist stance towards social change (Cowan and Carr, 2008). From a theoretical and political perspective, it shifts the analytical lens towards the agency and power of the actors and their actions. This therefore foregrounds the interplay between the social networks at the micro and meso-levels (Montenegro and Bulgacov, 2014). For the cultural sector, this is significant as it seeks to change the policy outlook from one which views the role of the cultural sector as predominantly one of economic, to social development and social justice, and shifting the lens from top-down to bottom-up (Holligan, 2015; Latour, 1999; Madden, 2010; Quartesan et al., 2007).
This paper seeks to bridge the theoretical divide which between social theory and cultural sector, by describing a developing research project on the role of Jamaican Music Industry Philanthropic Foundations and their role in social development. The research employs a descriptive case study approach to unearth these organisations' emergence and particularly how they generate resources at the grassroots level to support their programmes.
Emmanuel Kumi (University of Ghana) Palash Kamruzzaman (University of South Wales)
Paper short abstract:
What role national development experts (NDEs), with deeper cultural knowledge and working in their country of origins, can play in facilitating sustainable change? Critical exploration of this group can deepen our understanding for building networks for promoting sustainable change.
Paper long abstract:
National development experts (NDEs)* are an important actor in national level development but are often invisible in aid scholarship, as very little is known about their roles, agency, motivations and interests in mediating, brokering, negotiating, interpreting and operationalising external development frameworks. A growing body of literature, labelled as 'new actors in development' focuses on a range of development actors including celebrities, philanthropic institutions, diaspora groups etc., but the NDEs who can provide insightful insiders perspective on development policies and practices within development landscape do not get any mention. In the era of Sustainable Development Goals, new alliances and enterprises are deemed to be of significant importance for promoting sustainable change. In this context, we raise the question how can we map and situate the roles of NDEs along with their agency, interests, and motivations for their engagement in development. We highlight a gap in existing literature and seek to fill this gap by expanding our understanding of NDEs in development based on qualitative data and personal experiences from Bangladesh and Ghana. This paper examines the role of NDEs as an important actor of development at the national levels and manifests the need for further research on this group that has a broader relevance for holistic and more comprehensive ethnographies of aid.
*Provisionally defined as people whose main income is derived from working as self-employed consultants or from being employed by government, non-governmental and external agencies specifically to formulate, implement and assess development policies, programmes and projects in their country of residence.
Richard Hull (Goldsmiths, University of London)
Paper short abstract:
Exploring the unique challenges faced by social enterprises in Cuba in balancing financial viability with social and environmental impact, this paper argues for attention to both discursive and systemic structural factors in enabling progressive developments.
Paper long abstract:
The study and practice of social enterprise is haunted by an unhelpful dichotomy between the individual social entrepreneur operating in 'the market', and various combinations of charitable, NGO and state-funded activities. This paper instead adopts the triangular typology of Defourny & Nyssens (2016), focussing on a variety of current social enterprise developments in Cuba including a charismatic individual social entrepreneur, the emergence of Non Agricultural Cooperatives, a flourishing eco-village and a scuba-diving eco-tourism enterprise. It draws upon a mixture of direct observation and discussions with key experts promoting socially responsible enterprise, supplemented with desk-research and informed by the tradition of Critical Management Studies, in particular a dual focus on both the development of discourse and the changes in structural contexts.
A key conclusion is that the prospects for social enterprise in Cuba will depend upon the continuing changes in the styles and forms of Cuban democratic representation and especially in the workplace, but balanced against a rapidly increasing tourism industry with accompanying pressures towards individualism. Secondly, the situation in Cuba exemplifies the importance of both the discourse around social enterprise and the formal and informal structures of its eco-system. Finally, taking these two points together suggests the need to combine structuralist and post-structuralist accounts of the embedding of economic activity, for instance drawing upon perspectives developing within the fields of cultural economy and activist-based diverse economies.