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This book explores social innovation and entrepreneurship in China. Focusing on selected social enterprises and processes, it addresses the question of "why China?", not in terms of military, economic or political ambitions, but in the terms of social innovation and welfare policies. The analyses range from detailed ethnography to discussions of broad global trends.
Despite vastly improved social conditions in the country, there are still unresolved issues that social enterprises address. The study elaborates on the complexities involved in their positioning between the state and their beneficiaries. Adding to the complexity is China's dual system of circulation and the moral economy of ethnic minorities. The theoretical foundation of the study is the Durkheimian concept of the social contract. Its content is viewed as comprised of Maussian total social facts or guanxi, a similar Chinese framing, operationalised to particular socio-cultural configurations. The empirical cases document how social enterprises reposition elements in the various configurations in order to mobilise resources from their stakeholders. The book concludes that the discursive topology is altered in the process and the social contract is renewed in culturally meaningful, if paradoxical, ways.
This book will be of interest to researchers, students and academics in the fields of business and social entrepreneurship, especially to those with a particular interest in the Chinese case.
List of contents
Part I. Overview 1. The global social enterprise movement 2. The social enterprise movement in China Part II. Cases 3. In the international market economy and three case studies 4. The Qushuo Academy - in the modern economy 5. The Baisha Naxi Embroidery Institute in the moral economy 6. A socialist economy with Chinese characteristics Part III. Discussion 7. How social enterprises alter the social contract 8. How to engage in social entrepreneurship in China
About the author
Benedicte Brøgger is Professor in the Department of Communication and Culture at the BI Norwegian Business School, Norway.
Summary
This book explores social innovation and entrepreneurship in China. Focusing on selected social enterprises and processes, it addresses the question of "why China?", not in terms of military, economic or political ambitions, but in the terms of social innovation and welfare policies.
Report
"To understand civil society in China today, it is imperative to understand social enterprises. This book provides the first comprehensive examination of work-integration social enterprises, the organizations through which the Chinese state serves disabled people. Based on rigorous research from four different sites across the country, Wang not only reveals the way the Chinese state uses state enterprises to accomplish its goals, but also offers a useful schema to analyze the different types of state-SE relationships that emerge. She finds that social enterprises with cooperative relationships with the state of the most effective at influencing state policy." Carolyn L. Hsu, Colgate University, author of Social Entrepreneurship and Citizenship in China
