Polanyi’s ‘substantive approach’ to the economy in action? Conceptualising social enterprise as a public health ‘intervention’

Abstract

For several decades now, critical public health researchers have highlighted the deleterious effects that pursuing neoliberal policies can have on the 'causes of the causes' of poor health and upon growing health inequalities. This paper argues that the conceptual tools of Karl Polanyi can help lend particular insight into this issue. The specific example that this paper focuses upon is the 'social enterprise': a form of organisation that combines both social and business objectives. The paper explores, conceptually, whether social enterprises may have the potential to act as one component in a neo-Polanyian countermovement: helping to re-embed the economy back into society, and offering greater recognition for a more comprehensive and socially-imbued concept of health. Importantly, this potential is critically examined in the context of neoliberal hegemony, where challenges to the status quo have regularly been met with assimilation, co-option and/or repression.

Conceptualising the public health role of actors operating outside of formal health systems: The case of social enterprise

“…Nancy Krieger (2008, p. 223) reminds us that our “understanding of the societal distributions of health … cannot be divorced from considerations of political economy and political ecology”. Whether there is something implicit within social enterprises that enables them, or at least makes them potentially suitable, to address such structural factors, or whether their impact is constrained to dealing with (downstream) symptoms of problems alone, is a topic that deserves much closer critical examination (although see Roy (2016) and particularly Roy and Hackett (2016) for a full discussion). Glasgow also has a very specific health profile, and highly developed social enterprise sector.…”

The quandaries of social entrepreneurship studies – a discursive review of the discipline

“…Jolted by the worsening socio-economic conditions, governments turned to social entrepreneurs, expecting them to shoulder the state in its care-provisioning task (McRobbie 2000;Genz 2006). With its focus on the ability of nonprofit organizations to become more commercial, the conception of social enterprise has become the model of choice for many western welfare-based governments, such as in the U.K. and Australia (Roy and Hackett 2016). Accordingly, the nonprofit organizations, foundations, and some public service providers were encouraged -and later required -to undertake entrepreneurial ventures and the government welfare funding was pooled under the control of local initiatives (see Cook et al 2003 for a more extensive analysis of the relationship between social entrepreneurship and the welfare state).…”

How can social enterprises impact health and well-being?

“…Ridley-Duff and Bull (2015) suggest that social enterprises offer an alternative to government-led interventions by creating a more socially embedded, equitable economy. Roy and Hackett (2016) agree that social enterprises offer an alternative means of reducing the health inequalities often attributed to the neoliberal capitalist approach (Roy and Hackett, 2016).…”