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Practice Experience Organization

The Bread Project is a social enterprise in Berkeley that provides technical training in the baking industry, as well as general professional development skills, to low-income residents of the Bay Area who have various barriers to employment. Populations with "barriers" can include refugees, immigrants, those with incarceration records, the homeless, the disabled, survivors of domestic abuse, single parents, and more. It is a non-profit organization receives tax-exempt donations, but it also supplements its financial needs with a social enterprise. The Bread Project partners with local Bay Area vendors to provide products for sale. For instance, Ayesha Curry's restaurant International Smoke features our sweet potato buns for their burgers, The Bread Project makes all the edible cookie dough for a cookie dough cafe in San Francisco called DoughP, and Berkeley's own Melo Melo Kava Bar serves Bread Project cookies. Additionally, The Bread Project rents out its commercial kitchen space to women and minority-owned businesses who do not yet have enough capital to invest in their own full kitchen space.

Peer Editing

I think you did a really great job at giving the most crucial information necessary to understand the fundamentals of the Bread Project. This paragraph gives background context and information on steps taken in the present to address food insecurity.

Wikipedia Article Selection

Area

San Francisco Bay Area

For the reasons aforementioned below in the Article Evaluation section, I'll be contributing to the "Economy" section of the San Francisco Bay Area article. There is more evidence available, as well as more room for deeper and relevant analysis, within the San Francisco Bay Area article rather than the East Bay article. I'll be able to draw from greater phenomena (technology industry, startup culture, NGO/non-profit work, anti-poverty frameworks) to discuss the causes and sources of poverty in the region.

Sector

Social economy

I intend to contribute to the currently very sparse United States section, as well as the introductory "Social Enterprise Compass" section which outlines frameworks for the various actors within a social economy. They outline a rigid framework about the legal and financial structures of social enterprises which I intend to expand.

Peer Editing

Done well and gives good reasoning for contributing.

Article Evaluation

Area

San Francisco Bay Area

This article discusses the Bay Area's history thoroughly, however its depiction of the contemporary Bay Area is primarily focused on the booming technology industry. While this is a crucial aspect of the San Francisco Bay Area's current state of being (politically, economically, socially, etc), this does not show the entire picture.

Such a lack is most clearly shown in the Economy section, which again only focuses on how Silicon Valley's startup culture has permeated into the greater San Francisco Bay Area. My goal is to contribute a paragraph or two (or more!) about the realities of poverty in the region. While plenty have benefitted from the technology boom, many have also suffered. From rising housing prices and gentrification to homelessness and low-income communities, I feel that bringing in sources revolving the area's poverty is absolutely crucial for this Wikipedia page to portray a more holistic reality of life in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Sector

Social economy

This article as flagged as having multiple issues, including "needs attention from an expert in economics." My plan is to work on two key projects within the article. Firstly, I'll be re-working and contributing to the United States section, which touches very briefly on the various legal and financial hybridized structures that social enterprises may take. I'd like to discuss more on both the difficulties and flexibilities that are social enterprises encounter given the United States policies on obtaining and maintaining a 501(c)(3) non-profit status.

Additionally, I plan to add to the social enterprise compass which immediately follows the introduction. It outlines a rigid structure, with spectrums in a grid-like structure of socially-driven versus profit-driven operations and financial statuses. I intend to add more about hybridized structures here as well, not refuting but complicated and expounding on the aforementioned framework.

Overall, I hope to expound on the possibilities of a "social economy" such that it does not necessarily represent a right- or left- politically minded ideology; instead, I hope to show that (especially in the United States) a social economy can, in fact, be the solution to many issues of poverty while maintaining a feasible, productive free market economy.


Peer Editing

I think your contributions will be extremely beneficial to the articles you chose and expand on the topics brought up.

Scholarly Sources

Area

San Francisco Bay Area - Economy

_x_ 1) Whittle, Henry J, et al. Food insecurity, chronic illness, and gentrification in the San Francisco Bay Area: An example of structural violence in United States public policy. Journal of Social Science and Medicine, 2015.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953615300794

This source uses a study performed on Bay Area residents currently receiving some form of food assistance to explore how US policy and the second technological boom (beginning in 2011) constitute structural violence that imposes food insecurity, chronic illness, and gentrification in the San Francisco Bay Area. One striking approach is the idea that gentrification as a concept not only pertains to physical displacement of poor populations, but also social exclusion as the region begins to accommodate its policies and developments towards the newcomers with money. This source sheds light not only on the existence of gentrification as a phenomenon of the Bay Area, but also its implications and effects that permeate into the overall well-being (specifically, food insecurity and chronic illness as a result of this deepened impoverishment) of poor communities in the region.


__x__ 2) Murphey, Stacy H. “The Politics of Benevolence: Homelessness Policy in San Francisco.” University of California, Berkeley, UMI Microform, ProQuest LLC, 2008, pp. 25–111.

https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.berkeley.edu/docview/304697562

Murphey’s main claim is that San Francisco’s approach to homelessness has been more benevolent and in-line with supposedly “liberal” beliefs - that is, common good, inclusivity, community-building and moral obligation to the poor - yet the actuality of homelessness policies have simply created new forms of domineering governance. A new perspective that this article brought in is that of poverty policy and the ways in which it can actually counterproductively exacerbate social and political exclusion of the poor through its patriarchal structure (i.e. the Cash Not Care Program). I’d like to bring policy into the Wikipedia article as a means of showing what sorts of action has been taken and the ideologies their nature and rhetoric support. I feel this stands in stark contrast to The Bread Project’s approach, which requires much more initiative from beneficiaries to ask for help and actively search for resources/opportunities, so this will be a unique point of view to bring into my collection of sources. Poverty of the Bay Area cannot be ignored; just in moving from my relatively affluent hometown of San Mateo on the Bay Area Peninsula to the East Bay Area in Berkeley and Oakland, poverty became much more visible and apparent. Unlike my hometown with clean streets, numerous parks, job opportunities, and very little crime which renders poverty nonexistent, other cities like San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley have homeless populations which render poverty more visible. To accurately depict the reality of the Bay Area, how poverty manifests must be included in the discussions of the Bay Area economy.


__x___ 3) Soursourian, Matthew. Suburbanization of Poverty in the Bay Area. Community Development Research Brief, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, 2012.

https://www.frbsf.org/community-development/files/Suburbanization-of-Poverty-in-the-Bay-Area1.pdf

Discusses how the San Francisco Bay Area's impoverished populations and other manifestations have shifted from its traditional setting and perceptions in inner-city "ghettos" to suburban areas. Need to review how "scholarly" this article is because it will still bring in very useful information with real statistics from the city itself rather than just theory or very specific, specialized studies as the other sources have done.


______ 4) Walker, Richard. Pictures of a Gone City: Tech and the Dark Side of Prosperity in the San Francisco Bay Area. PM Press, 2018.http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/search~S1?/XBay+Area+poverty&searchscope=1&SORT=DZ/XBay+Area+poverty&searchscope=1&SORT=DZ&extended=0&SUBKEY=Bay+Area+poverty/1%2C58%2C58%2CB/frameset&FF=XBay+Area+poverty&searchscope=1&SORT=DZ&8%2C8%2C

Given its recent publishing date, this up-to-date source should provide insight as to the contemporary causes of poverty in the Bay Area, which is ever so quickly giving way to the technology industry and its well-paid employees who enter the local areas, push out low-income populations, and gentrify its businesses. I hope Pictures of a Gone City will offer some evidence-based examples and statistics of the effects of gentrification (and technology as a whole) on low-income communities to help shed light on poverty in the Bay Area (and East Bay in particular, if possible) for the Wikipedia article.


______ 5) Plaster, Joseph. Importing injuries: how deregulation and the Wal-Mart poison the Port of Oakland's neighbors and force poverty wages on its truckers.http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/search~S1?/XBay+Area+poverty&searchscope=1&SORT=DZ/XBay+Area+poverty&searchscope=1&SORT=DZ&extended=0&SUBKEY=Bay+Area+poverty/1%2C58%2C58%2CB/frameset&FF=XBay+Area+poverty&searchscope=1&SORT=DZ&18%2C18%2C

This source does sound like it may contain some bias and political skewing. However, if it contains reliable statistics regarding the specific, evidence-based results of Wal-Mart and deregulation on poverty levels, it may offer important insight on how and when poverty emerged in the Bay Area more contemporarily, as well as what catalyzed it.


6) Short, Anne, et al. “Food Deserts, Oases, or Mirages? Small Markets and Community Food Security in the San Francisco Bay Area.” Journal of Planning Education and Research, vol. 26, no. 3, 2007, pp. 352–364., doi:10.1177/0739456x06297795.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0739456X06297795

Contrary to the above, this source actually suggests that economic potential may exist within the small community markets that characterize so-called "food deserts." This reminds me of a piece I read in a class called Food, Drink, Culture, and Politics in which Detroit natives were appalled that their region was being characterized as a food desert. They claimed that access to food and other less apparent ways of creating community through eating existed, though not apparent to an outside observer. While I may not include this article in my final drafting, it will be interesting to contextualize my greater understanding of the complexity of food deserts more specific to the San Francisco Bay Area. Overall, searching for sources on food insecurity has broadened the scope of my writing on the impoverished side of the Bay Area's economy.

Sector

Social Economy- United States and Social Enterprise Compass


___x___ 1) Frutcherman, Jim. “For Love or Lucre.” Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2011, pp. 42–47.

https://bcourses.berkeley.edu/courses/1472574/files/73651631?module_item_id=15638455

Frutcherman explores the variety of legal and financial hybrid structures which social enterprises can take on. From the simple for-profit private business or 501(c)(3) non-profit NGO to the more abstract “for-profit with a social overlay” or “non-profit with a mission-related enterprise,” this source complicates the framework from the original Social Enterprise Compass given in the Wikipedia article. I’ll add these new models and build off of Frutherman’s hybrid examples that help demonstrate the potential for complexity of various actors within a social economy. The Bread Project is a great example of this, given that it has both a non-profit side that receives tax-exempt donations and runs the Bakery Bootcamp and professional development services, but also the social enterprise that helps financially sustain its programs.


___x____ 2) Mook, Laurie, et al. Understanding the Social Economy of the United States. University of Toronto Press, 2015.

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=0R-NBgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=%22social+economy&ots=d3fdNlPsfu&sig=cF6XOdFZ6dP7hU9yN8915_HGCLM#v=onepage&q=%22social%20economy&f=false

Mook asserts that defining social institutions purely by the tax code (she is referring to the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organizations as defined by United States law), we are limiting not only our understanding but the potential for faith in growth in for-profit companies in achieving social goals. Also framing social entrepreneurship as venture philanthropy (which it certainly can be but is not limited to), this source expounds on the origins, limits, and growth potential for social entrepreneurship as a legitimate field within the workings of a more socially responsible market system -- or, in other words, a social economy. She characterizes the social economy as a space in the United States where there is room to break down the aforementioned rigid barriers of public, private, and non-profit sectors. Much of her theory aligns with the literature I’ve read about social entrepreneurship but contextualizes it into the broader social economy space within the United States.


___x___ 3) Battilana, Julie, et al. “In Search of the Hybrid Ideal.” Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2012, pp. 51–55.

https://bcourses.berkeley.edu/courses/1472574/files/73887110?module_item_id=15646611

This source, much like the Fruterman souce, also explores the various ways players within social economy -- be they buyers, sellers, or intermediates, can operate and exist within the legal and financial boundaries of the United States. Unlike Frutcherman, however, this source goes much more in-depth such that I can use it to work specifically on the United States section of the Wikipedia article (given that it pertains to our laws and culture specifically) rather than solely the general framework of a social enterprise. This article ties in with the “bootstrap” mentality of the United States; the Wikipedia article already mentions how relatively neoliberal, market-based and “hard work reaps reward” American ideologies have contributed to the rise of for-profit social enterprises in this country, so these various models will apply well to socio-political discourses regarding where each fits in the typical American mind (i.e., small government gives rise to non-profits and NGOs, but American Dream and bootstrap ideal shift non-profit and state work to the individual which gives rise to social enterprises to empower people to help themselves). Finally, she gives a more specific definition of a hybrid organization (for-profit with a social mission) than other sources, which have generally defined hybrid as any sort of non- or for-profit mix.


_______ 4) Goode, Judith, and Jeff Maskovsky. The New Poverty Studies: the Ethnography of Power, Politics, and Impoverished People in the United States. New York Univ. Press, 2001.http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/search~S1?/Xnew+poverty+studies&searchscope=1&SORT=D/Xnew+poverty+studies&searchscope=1&SORT=D&SUBKEY=new+poverty+studies/1%2C1026%2C1026%2CB/frameset&FF=Xnew+poverty+studies&searchscope=1&SORT=D&1%2C1%2C

This source, too, could be used for either area or sector depending on how specifically it delves into location. It should help contextualize what poverty looks like for different people who have faced different life hurdles - or, as the Bread Project would call them - employment barriers. It appears that this book will touch on the various answers Katz explores to "What kind of a problem is poverty?" because there are sections on gender and class (people problem), economic and cultural reconstruction of low wage labor markets (political economy), and activism (power). I hope to carry these various lenses of interpreting and understanding poverty into my various projects in 105 this year to reference as a framework. This book should be informative in helping me analyze the Bread Project's effectiveness as well as the overall issues with community education that frames employability as the end-all solution to poverty.


_______ 5) Pavel, M. Paloma. Breakthrough Communities: Sustainability and Justice in the next American Metropolis. MIT Press, 2009.http://oskicat.berkeley.edu/search~S1?/XBay+Area+poverty&searchscope=1&SORT=DZ/XBay+Area+poverty&searchscope=1&SORT=DZ&extended=0&SUBKEY=Bay+Area+poverty/1%2C58%2C58%2CB/frameset&FF=XBay+Area+poverty&searchscope=1&SORT=DZ&15%2C15%2C

I aim to specifically focus on the section titled "A global perspective: community-driven solutions to urban poverty" will provide a global perspective that I can use to improve my sector article, Community Education, which was flagged for not representing a global view. I hope to also explore the section titled "Bridging the Bay: University/community collaborations in the San Francisco Bay Area." Again, depending on specific content (need to check out from library), this source could be used for area or sector. This should provide information as to what formal education at universities, which is often far out of reach for the low-income and/or those with employment barriers, actually provide to the communities which keep them afloat.

_______ 6) Allegretto, Sylvia, et al. “ The Public Cost of Low-Wage Jobs in the Fast-Food Industry.” UC Berkeley Labor Center, Oct. 2013, doi:10.3386/w3997.

http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/pdf/2013/fast_food_poverty_wages.pdf

This article particularly addresses my concerns about The Bread Project -- that entry-level jobs in the food industry often do not pay sufficient living wages. This report offers more specific numbers and statistics about this idea, as well as overall inequities in economic growth. It suggests that while there have been better employment rates in recent years, many of those jobs are in lower-paying positions, such as in the fast food industry. This provides a critical analysis of the United States current employment and economic states.

________ 7) Collins, James C. Good to Great and the Social Sectors Why Business Thinking Is Not the Answer. Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind, 2012.

I had read this book in my social entrepreneurship class at Berkeley. In a Haas class full of mostly Haas majors, I often felt out of place with my "mission-first' thinking. My professor continuously emphasized the fact that the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals always come first in any sort of social enterprise, be it a nonprofit or for-profit. Continuously throughout our year-long group project of building a business plan, I had to remind my group mates that things considered to be "business-like" -- that is, efficiency, innovation, and generating revenue -- are not limited to the corporate world. Given this experience, I think it's an important piece to bring into the discussion of social enterprises towards the beginning of the article when it outlines what defines a social enterprise.

Peer Editing

All the scholarly sources you chose seem like really great choices to support your argument and the research you plan on making. You provided necessary analysis in order for general readers to understand your reasonings and points you aim to make.

Summarizing and Synthesizing

Area: San Francisco Bay Area

In reading through my sources, I've found information regarding the increasing suburbanization of poverty in the Bay Area, which is certainly a notable phenomenon that contrasts the typical images and ideas of the inner-city urban poor. None of the sources were conclusive in exploring whether these shifts were due to deflating incomes in suburban areas or merely the relocation of poor people. The latter is certainly a possibility, as the reports on homelessness in San Francisco suggested with rising housing prices and shifting policy remedies to homelessness. It may be appropriate, as drafting continues and more research is conducted, for me to limit my discussion of housing and homelessness within the "Economy" section of this article and instead shift these contributions to the "Housing" section. One of the most notable claims from the Benevolence of Homelessness piece is how San Francisco hails itself as one of the most inclusive and accepting cities in the world, yet fails to do so for the poor who are seen as an inconvenience. My aim in my drafting was to highlight this hypocrisy without making unsubstantiated, biased, or argumentative claims by simply bringing in contrasting information about the Bay Area's economy. The current paragraphs highlight the booming technology and manufacturing industries which have been supposedly so beneficial, but I'm drawing from Plaster and Walker to demonstrate the other side of things. While the sources on immigrants in the Bay Area have provided an excellent framework, there is some contradiction between my sources in that The Suburbanization of Poverty suggests native born people in the Bay Area suburbs have experienced greater rates of poverty while Soursourian claims the opposite.

Sector: Social Economy

The sources have expounded on the definition of the Social Economy, as well as the various forms that organizations and companies within the social economy may take. Actors within the social economy may have a variety of financial and legal structures, but their social goals must remain central to all activities, and take priority over profit. A new discovery from Mook's book is that by definition, social enterprises/organizations are distinctly NOT part of the public sector because according to her definition, they are self-governing. However, the sources from my Social Entrepreneurship class (Frutcherman, Battilana) discuss that public partnerships are certainly not out of the question and are often quite strategic in achieving social goals and/or maintaining the financial feasibility necessary for operation. For instance, the granting of a 501(c)(3) status by the government exempts organizations from paying taxes, but they are legally held to a higher standard of maintaining social missions at the heart of the organization in order to maintain that status; for-profit social enterprises and LLCs, however, may be more flexible in when they prioritize social missions and when they may need to focus on finances. I've also drawn from broad ideas of neoliberalism from GPP 115 and specifically referred to Mook's suggestion that neoliberalism in the United States has put pressure on social organizations to act more "business-like" to ensure efficiency and financial feasibility.

Peer Editing

Detailed in the summations and make definition points with synthesis. Good job.

Drafting

Bold = new material. Non-bold = copy-pasted from current Wikipedia article.

Area

Economy

Google, a multinational technology company and subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., is headquartered in the Bay Area city of Mountain View.

The three principal cities of the Bay Area represent different employment clusters and are dominated by different, but commingled, industries. San Francisco is home to the region's financial and business industry, tourism, and is host to numerous conventions. The East Bay, centered around Oakland, is home to heavy industry, metalworking, oil, and shipping, while Silicon Valley is a major pole of economic activity around the technology industry. Furthermore, the North Bay is a major player in the country's agriculture and wine industry. In all, the Bay Area is home to the second highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies, second only to the New York metropolitan area, with thirty such companies based throughout the region. In 2017, the greater twelve-county statistical area had a GDP of $878 billion, the third-highest among combined statistical areas. In 2016, the smaller nine-county Bay Area had a GDP of $781 billion, which nonetheless would rank it 5th among U.S. states and 18th among countries.

Several major corporations are headquartered in the Bay Area. Among the Fortune 500 companies located in the region include technology companies Google, Apple Inc., Hewlett Packard, Intel, Applied Materials, eBay, Cisco Systems, Symantec, Oracle, Netflix, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Electronic Arts, and Salesforce; energy companies Chevron and PG&E; financial service companies Charles Schwab Corporation, Visa Inc., and Wells Fargo; apparel retailers Gap Inc., Levi Strauss & Co., and Ross Stores; aerospace and defense contractor Lockheed Martin; local grocer Safeway; pharmaceutical company McKesson; and biotechnology companies Genentech and Gilead Sciences. The largest manufacturers include Tesla Inc., Lam Research, Bayer, Chevron, and Coca-Cola.Oakland is the site of the fifth-largest container shipping port in the United States and is also a major rail terminus. In research, NASA's Ames Research Center and the federal research facility Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are based in Mountain View and Livermorerespectively. In the North Bay, Napa and Sonoma counties are known for their famous wineries, including Fantesca Estate & Winery, Domaine Chandon California, and D'Agostini Winery.

Despite the San Francisco Bay Area's booming industries contributing to the aforementioned economic growth, there is a significant level of poverty in the region. Rising housing prices and gentrification in the San Francisco Bay Area are often framed as symptomatic of high-income tech workers moving in to previously low-income, underserved neighborhoods. [***Cite another source that frames tech as the problem*** ]As of June 2014, median rent in San Francisco increased to $2,300, a 21% in one year.[1] In Oakland, median rent increased by one-third between 2011 and 2013. Two notable policy strategies to prevent eviction due to rising rents include rent control and subsidies such as Section 8 and Shelter Plus Care.[1] Moreover, in 2002, soon-to-be governor Newsom introduced the widely controversial "Care Not Cash" initiative which cut cash support to the homeless and instead diverted funds to more housing units. Some suggest his rhetoric patriarchally conflated poverty with criminal activity and incompetence, while supporters argue that housing itself will break the cycle of poverty.[2] To this day, the effectiveness of Care Not Cash is inconclusive.

Contrary to historical patterns of low incomes within the inner city, poverty rates in the Bay Area are shifting such that they are increasing more rapidly in suburban areas than in urban areas.[3] As such, people in poverty experience decreased access to transportation due to underdeveloped public transport infrastructure in suburban areas. It is not yet clear whether the suburbanization of poverty is due to the relocation of poor populations or shifting income levels in the respective regions. However, the mid-2000s housing boom encouraged city dwellers to move into the newly cheap houses in suburbs outside of the city, and these suburban housing developments were then most impacted by the 2008 housing bubble burst. Suburban poverty is most prevalent among Hispanics and Blacks, and affects native-born people more significantly than foreign-born.[3]

As greater proportions of incomes are spent on rent, many impoverished populations in the San Francisco Bay Area also face food insecurity.[1]

Sector

United States

The designation of sectors in this region is ambiguous. [Delete previous sentence.] In the United States, rapid social change has led to shifts in both purposes and organizational forms of actors within the social economy. The diverse array of organizations and companies includes nonprofits, cooperatives, credit unions, limited liability companies, social enterprises, and benefit corporations.[4]In the United States, it is equivalent to industry; [Delete sentence prior to semicolon] the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) defines sectors more distinctly, depending on the statistical [delete "statistical"] purpose [NEED TO CITE THIS]. A sector can be a grouping of institutions, such as by [delete "by"] government (taxing authority), business (taxable profit-making), philanthropy (untaxed nonprofit), and household (taxable personal income). However, due to increasingly hybridized institutions within the social economy, their categorization may not clearly fit within the social enterprise compass. Designation may depend upon legal and financial structures, as well as the organization's purpose and goals. Policy makers may need to shift legal boundaries to adapt to this dynamic social economy.[5]

In the United States, where business preeminence is emphasised, many social organizations are increasingly adopting more business-like efficiency and strategies.[6] Organizational form may differentiate conventional and hybrid business forms. A hybrid organization is one which maintains a social mission while pursuing profit. Hybrids have primarily existed in sectors such as job training, health care, and microcredit but have recently expanded to include environmentalism, technology, and even consulting.[7] This is acknowledged in the tax codes of several states with such entities as the benefit and for-benefit corporations. Although they are [delete "they are"] similar, they are not identical. This "fourth sector" differs from the third sector by its location (in the United States) and its emphasis on business (as opposed to government) leadership in the voluntary sector. Outside the United States governments establish national plans for the third sector, which formalizes the role of governments. [Delete previous sentence, as it is generalizing, unsubstantiated and united.] In the contemporary neoliberal socioeconomic and political environment, the U.S. such governmental planning is discouraged [delete everything after "U.S."] market-based mechanisms are emphasised, such as social entrepreneurship and venture philanthropy.[8] A discussion of sectors and social economy is in Business with a Difference: Balancing the Social and the Economic by Mook, Quarter and Ryan, produced with the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and furthering the work of the Association of Nonprofit and Social Economy Research (ANSER) [Delete this last sentence, seems non-Wikipedia-esque]



Social economy studies the relationship between economy and social behavior. It analyzes how consumer behavior is influenced by social morals, ethics and other humanitarian philosophies. The social economy examines activity that is related to economics amongst the community and exposes the information to the community, this includes the social enterprise and voluntary sectors.[1]

A social economy develops because of a need for new solutions for issues (social, economic or environmental) and to satisfy needs which have been ignored (or inadequately fulfilled) by the private or public sectors. By using solutions to achieve not-for-profit aims, a social economy has a unique role in creating a strong, sustainable, prosperous and inclusive society. It is important for companies to be able to independently implement their own CSR initiatives as studies have shown that this will result be much more impactful than government-mandated CSR initiatives.[2]

Successful social-economy organisations play a role in fulfilling governmental policy objectives by:

  • Increasing productivity and competitiveness
  • Contributing to socially-inclusive wealth creation
  • Enabling individuals and communities to renew local neighbourhoods
  • Demonstrating new ways to deliver public services
  • Developing an inclusive society and active citizenship

Defining the limits of a social-economy sector is difficult due to shifting politics and economics; at any time organisations may be "partly in, partly out", moving among sub-sectors of the social economy.

Social enterprise compass[edit]

Organisations may be placed on the social enterprise compass, which measures enterprises and organisations on a continuum between the private and public sectors.

Horizontal axis

On the horizontal axis, each enterprise or organisation is categorized by its ownership. On the left side ownership is by public authorities, and on the right side it is private industry. "Private industry" encompasses all economic activity with the capital of one (or many) private owners, with a view to making a profit for personal benefit. The owners supply financial capital and bear any risk. “Public authorities” encompass all economic activity in which public authorities possess the capital at the European, federal, regional or local level; this includes nationalised and public industries.

Vertical axis

On the vertical axis each enterprise or organisation is categorized by its primary objective, from "social purpose" at the top to "commercial purpose" at the bottom. Social purpose is the primary objective of the enterprise if it meets the following criteria:

  • Ethical concept: Core definition
  • Mission (key identification): The enterprise's primary objective is to improve the lives of disadvantaged people, provide support, advance social cohesion or improve the environment.
  • Social economic creation of value and appropriation of earnings (qualitative key identification): Profits and resources are verifiably reinvested for the benefit of disadvantaged people.

If these criteria are met, an organisation is at the top of the vertical axis.

One criterion is a descriptive feature:

  • Intermediary function: Social economical enterprises and organisations have an intermediary function (between public and private).

If none of the above criteria is met, or the primary object of the enterprise is commercial, it is located at the bottom of the vertical axis.

Between social and commercial purposes

If the above criteria are partially met, the enterprise is located along the vertical axis according to its self-definition.

- Add more about scope, geography, growth

- Solidarity economy, Craig Borowiak

Responding to Peer Review

Area: Will definitely try to break down the long sentences, and certainly may be helpful to do so by adding more specific and cited statistics (i.e. median income). Need to search for more clear, credible, and recent sources to get these sorts of numbers. Moreover, will remove the subjective language ("disposable" income) and minor grammatical errors when I begin the next round of drafting. Need to review how to cite when there are multiple facts from the same source brought in the same paragraph, but not necessarily in order. Will arrange a time to come to office hours, because the tutorials are unclear on this.

Sector: No negative/constructive feedback, just positive reenforcement!



  1. ^ a b c "ScienceDirect". www.sciencedirect.com. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.08.027. Retrieved 2019-03-04.
  2. ^ Murphy, Stacey Heneage. (2008). The politics of benevolence : homeless policy in San Francisco. OCLC 892834981.
  3. ^ a b Soursourian, Matthew (2012). "Suburbanization of Poverty in the Bay Area" (PDF). Community Development Research Brief, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.
  4. ^ Frutcherman, Jim., Jim (2011). ""For Love or Lucre."". Stanford Social Innovation Review: 42–47.
  5. ^ Laurie., Mook,. Understanding the social economy of the United States. ISBN 9781442614116. OCLC 904538118.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ Laurie., Mook,. Understanding the social economy of the United States. ISBN 9781442614116. OCLC 904538118.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Battilana, Julie (Summer 2012). "In Search of the Hybrid Ideal". Stanford Social Innovation Review: 51–55.
  8. ^ Laurie., Mook,. Understanding the social economy of the United States. ISBN 9781442614116. OCLC 904538118.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)