Social Entrepreneurship and Empowerment: Safe Space and Bridging In The Case Of MadeInCarcere

Abstract

The empowerment of marginalized individuals implies solutions both affecting the conditions which impede self-determination and stimulating the individuals to take choices. In Italy, for instance, social enterprises working with convicts have to deal with a repressive context and a lack of individual agency mind-set. Our paper presents the results of a case study of Made In Carcere, an social enterprise actives in Lecce which employs convicted women to produce and sell products on the market. We examine how the empowerment of convicts passes through the creation of a safe space and processes able to make a bridge with the outside reality. Our paper demonstrates that the market driven dimension of social enterprise is critical to make the bridging effective in producing convicts empowerment, other than make the organization economic sustainable.

Unintended Negative Effects of the Legitimacy-Seeking Behavior of Social Enterprises on Employee Attitudes

“…Like other employees, the beneficiaries of social enterprises will be more committed to organizational activities and will contribute more when they feel they are valued members of the focal social enterprises. It is important for social entrepreneurs to empower the beneficiaries of social enterprises to be more proactive and participative ( Rimac et al, 2012 ; Mongelli et al, 2016 ). Thus, if social entrepreneurs remain cognizant of this while carefully designing promotional materials, they can pursue their social mandate and secure resources synergistically without dismantling each other.…”

Hybridisation of diverging institutional logics through common-note practices – an analogy with music and the case of social enterprises

“…Mongelli et al (2016) show that everyday convicts participating in Made in Carcere exit their cells and proceed to the laboratory following a precise ritual, and while in the lab their work develops in a similar way every day. 3 The rituality this generates is instrumental to detach them from their cells also mentally and enter a space where they can see themselves as productive workers facing the market.…”

“…To see this more clearly, consider the case of Made in Carcere (Mongelli et al 2016), an Italian social enterprise that employs convicted women to produce fashion goods. In this case, we argue that the practices related to the process of unblocking convicted women's capability to produce and sell fashion goods on the market are considerable common-note practices.…”