'Social enterprise' in a Global Financial Crisis: Is there a developing-world voice?

Abstract

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals are in danger of being overshadowed by the Global Financial Crisis. With governments around the world plunging billions of dollars into their own economies, it is expected that international development dollars will be sacrificed. Under these circumstances, the new breed of supposedly ‘financially self‐sufficient’ development organisations become of particular interest. This is especially so, when such organisations promise a break from the traditional capitalist ethos. From Muhammad Yunus’ microfinance banks to Jeff Skoll’s social entrepreneurs, we have seen the rise in prominence of both business‐oriented social ventures and socially‐oriented business ventures. However, whilst it is developing countries who are in most need of an alternative to failed market systems, the literature on this ‘social enterprise’ phenomenon is currently western‐centric and not globally relevant. This paper, therefore, will firstly explore the existing debates in the social enterprise literature within a Global Financial Crisis context. By doing so, I attempt to prove that the current conceptions are predominantly western‐focused. Specifically, it is the presumption of western economic and power systems which makes the current social enterprise discourse disconnected from developing world experiences. In the final section, therefore, I will attempt to reconceptualise the main debates within a developing country context‐ using the example of Grameen social enterprises in Bangladesh, with specific reference to the Global Financial Crisis. The paper concludes by calling for more discussion of social enterprises run and supported by local people in developing countries, hopefully from the local practitioners themselves.