An interdisciplinary SEED@CU project—involving faculty and graduate students from six schools and colleges-- received an Innovative Grant award from CU’s Graduate School in 2007 to launch a pilot research project on the linkage of social entrepreneurship initiatives and sustainable community development goals. Our field work in Summer 2008 identifies the conditions under which more holistic and integrative social entrepreneur initiatives develop, the barriers to this process, and the ways in which social entrepreneur initiatives contribute to sustainable community development.
A key priority is developing community-based definitions of social entrepreneurship through focus groups and field work. The cases include a mix of urban and rural sites: in Nairobi, Kenya, Namsaling, Nepal, and West Bengal. We are comparing social entrepreneur initiatives across these sites in terms of life cycle stages, with special attention to their embeddedness in local contexts. Our analysis centers on identifying the multiple causal pathways linking social entrepreneurship to more or less effective sustainable community development. CYE is especially interested in the emergence of social entrepreneurs among youth in areas of poverty.
For more information, email Prof. Susan Clarke, CARTSS (clarkes@colorado.edu), visit our wiki at http://wiki.edc-cu.org, or contact cye@colorado.edu.