Social Entrepreneurship

An Affirmative Critique

Edited by Pascal Dey, Bern University of Applied Sciences and Chris Steyaert, Doctor in Psychology and Professor in Organizational Psychology, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland

Pascal Dey and Chris Steyaert provide a timely critique on the idea of social entrepreneurship and its reputation as a means for positive social change. The book uses different traditions and modes of critique to interrogate, disrupt and reimagine the concept of social entrepreneurship.

‘Pascal Dey and Chris Steyaert have composed a conceptual assemblage that problematizes "social entrepreneurship" and opens up a space for transforming our understanding of what it means to engage in social transformation. The affirmative critique neither accepts what is given, nor simply rejects it. The chapters in Social Entrepreneurship instead invite us to explore the limits of our capitalist understanding of "social entrepreneurship" and inspire us to reinvent it as a space and practice of potential transformation in the context of democracy and our responsibilities in the Anthropocene.’
– Richard Weiskopf, University of Innsbruck, Austria

‘This is a pioneering book for anyone who wants to make sense of what entrepreneurship is (not just social entrepreneurship) as a phenomenon and as a field of study. So, while the book is ostensibly about social entrepreneurship – all entrepreneurship is inherently social – and, therefore, while the book offers various insightful and critical assessments of social entrepreneurship (as myth, ideology, politic, power, enacted, participated, related and possible – just a few of the categories explored), it also garners enlightening discernment across all aspects of entrepreneurship, itself. A much needed reflection that would be very valuable for all entrepreneurship scholars.’
– William B. Gartner, Babson College, US

‘This book will surprise you! And it will keep surprising you chapter after chapter for its diversity, insight and wit. The book exemplifies the work of critique as a creative practice and illustrates the ways in which social entrepreneurship as a category of thought is instituted, and how it is ordered as a field of knowledge. The authors pay close attention to the intricate ways in which social entrepreneurship is enacted as a phenomenon that is brought into existence, is constantly changing and constitutes an ongoing social practice.’
– Silvia Gherardi, University of Trento, Italy