Sustainable entrepreneurship and the Sustainable Development Goals: Community‐led initiatives, the social solidarity economy and commons ecologies

Abstract

The social solidarity economy is an approach to the production and consumption of goods, services and knowledge that promises to address contemporary economic, social and environmental crises more effectively than business as usual. The paper employs the concept of commons ecologies to examine the practices, relationships and interactions among actors and organisations in the social solidarity economy, as well as between them and the mainstream economy, which shape the field and its degree of autonomy in relation to capitalism, through a process defined as boundary commoning. Such process shapes both local and regional commons ecologies, as well as the participation of local and regional actors in wider networks at national, international and global levels. The paper takes a case study‐based approach to identify practices, relationships and interactions of commons ecologies in relation to selected community‐led initiatives in the UK, Portugal, Brazil and Senegal. Each case study illuminates different qualities of local/regional commons ecologies and their forms of engagement with wider networks. Further, the paper shows that these cases demonstrate how the social solidarity economy may facilitate delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals in a distinctive way. In each case, SSE acts as a vehicle for expressing participants' values and principles consistent with those underlying the SDGs. Local implementation of SDGs is thus an in‐built feature of these commons ecologies. The participation of community‐led initiatives in international and global networks offers opportunities to learn from local level experiences and successes, potentially strengthening SDG implementation more generally.

Citizens and cities: Leveraging citizen science and big data for sustainable urban development

“…This method allowed us to explore in‐depth and provide substantial support for the development of preliminary theoretical concepts (Eisenhardt, 1989; Leonard‐Barton, 1990). To this end, we considered two relevant case studies (Esteves et al, 2021; Hallin et al, 2021) pertaining to highly populated and iconic urban environments in North America and Europe, that is New York and Rome. We selected these two cases for three main reasons: (i) they are among the few cases that show initial evidence of the joint applications of CS and BD, (ii) they are representative of different geographical and cultural contexts, and (iii) they provide a number of differentiated data sources, which is crucial for data triangulation and for the external validity of results (Flick et al, 2004).…”

Fostering sustainable entrepreneurship by business strategies: An explorative approach in the bioeconomy

“…This study considers these three attributes as important issues for implementation of sustainable entrepreneurship in the bioeconomy. Furthermore, sustainable entrepreneurship evolves within different stages of development, starting from the involvement of enterprises in environmental and social activities, through proactive strategies for achieving short-term competitive advantages, to implementation of innovations that are foundational for the long-term entrepreneurial activities aimed at realizing social goals as well as environmental improvements (Cohen & Winn, 2007;Esteves et al, 2021;Schaltegger & Wagner, 2011;Urbaniec, 2018;Wagner, 2009). Sustainable entrepreneurship applies to large and medium-sized enterprises that seek to improve business activities by rationally reducing resource consumption and shifting production processes towards sustainable development.…”

“…Sustainable development is a complex issue, and despite many studies and publications in recent years, it remains poorly recognized, especially in the field of entrepreneurship (Belz & Binder, 2017; Johnson & Schaltegger, 2020; Muñoz & Cohen, 2018; Ramcilovic‐Suominen & Pulzl, 2018; Salmivaara & Kibler, 2019). Achieving Sustainable Development Goals according to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, especially regarding production and consumption of safe and healthy food as well as promoting sustainable business practices, depends on research and innovation (Esteves et al, 2021; Schutte, 2018; Wydra, 2020), investments in technology, new business models, and social and environmental innovation, which contribute to shaping new business trends (Dean & Castillo, 2013; Lüdeke‐Freund, 2020; Zilberman et al, 2018).…”

COP26 Futures We Want - Brazil Country Profile

“…SSE principles also embrace circular economies to reduce and reuse otherwise discarded materials by basing them as their social, rather than economic, value 154 . Through community-led initiatives, SSE is envisioned as a desirable social platform to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 155 . In Brazil, SSE have established important linkages with sustainable agricultural production and food markets in the country, as well as the expansion of agroforestry networks in the Amazon region 156 .…”