For
some 20 years, a significant part of my life was devoted to the encouragement of community
building – first at a neighbourhood level; then at that of a shipbuilding town;
then, for more than a decade, at the level of a Region which covered half of Scotland.
Initially the tool was simple mobilisation – talk and organisation.
Then it was structural – setting up institutions which enabled hitherto voiceless people to gain the ear of those in power.
Ultimately the tool was financial – to enable those evicted from the formal economy to create local companies which provided local jobs and services in areas from which commercial activity had been drained. In the mid 1980s I chaired Strathclyde Community Business which channelled millions of pounds into such examples of social enterprise..
Initially the tool was simple mobilisation – talk and organisation.
Then it was structural – setting up institutions which enabled hitherto voiceless people to gain the ear of those in power.
Ultimately the tool was financial – to enable those evicted from the formal economy to create local companies which provided local jobs and services in areas from which commercial activity had been drained. In the mid 1980s I chaired Strathclyde Community Business which channelled millions of pounds into such examples of social enterprise..
When
the wall fell in 1989, (wild) west-ern capitalism drove all before it – the few
voices advocating an alternative to neoliberalism were soon drowned out. The
very mention of “cooperatives” was enough to bring down a torrent of abuse –
even so, I wondered every now and then about whether the time might not be ripe
for this powerful model to raise its banner one more in this part of the world.
After all, tens of millions of people are employed globally in cooperatives
and social enterprise – why should Bulgaria and Romania be any different?
One
such opportunity came in Sofia’s Ministry of Labour in early 2008 when I was
team leader of a training project which selected 5 fields for stronger efforts
at harmonisation with EC laws and practices. One of these fields was that of
“equal opportunities” and I presented a short case-study
of our experience in the West of Scotland (based on a much longer paper Organisational Development
and Political Amnesia), hoping that it might encourage some thoughts
about social enterprise.
In many ways, conditions in Bulgaria for such ventures seem more propitious than in Romania where so many have
sold their soul to the capitalist devil – young graduates in particular mortgaging
themselves to the hilt with apartments and new cars. The word I generally use
of Bulgarians is “modest” since they have been more subdued in that respect –
which seems indeed to fit their greater environmental appreciation. It’s significant
that you find so many healthfood and traditional medicine shops in Sofia which
I sometimes call Europe’s “retro” city. Both Bulgaria and Romania are orthodox
countries but there is a touch of paganism in Bulgaria which you can
experience in some New Year events and the Rila mountain in August.
“Resilience”
has become a fashionable term – and Bulgaria gives the feel that will be better able to
buckle its collective belt and make the necessary adjustments to life as
austerity continues to grind us all down….
The Social Economy in Romania - a resource
Policies,
practices and tendencies in social economy in Romania and EU (2010) – an
excellent introduction to the concept and its practice in EU countries -
although very light on the Romanian context. Focuses latterly on its scope for the
disabled community.
Social
economy – trend or reality (summary of 2012 Suceava conference) A useful
note
Trends and challenges for
social enterprise in Romania (2012) – a useful, if academic, paper which
sketches the legal background and gives a fairly bleak assessment of progress
until 2010 or so
Institutionalising
social enterprise in Romania (2012) – a slightly better presented version
of the same previous paper
A global view from RO
(2013) a PhD student’s introductory notes to the subject (with no employment
data)
Social
Enterprises in Romania (2014) what purports to be a first attempt to put
numbers on the sector
The
State of Social Entrepreneurship in Romania (NESsT 2014) - the first consultants’
run at the sector
Atlas of
Social Economy Romania 2014 (Romanian only)
Surviving
the crisis – bibliography on workers’ coops in Romania (2014)
A pilot profile
of the social entrepreneur in a constantly changing Romanian economy (2015)
a typical academic study
Building
the social investment industry – the case of Romania (NESsT 2016) looks to
be the most up-to-date and comprehensive assessment of the sector, focusing
very much on different models and the practical steps which can be taken (with
case-studies)
From
Challenges to Opportunities – advancing social enterprise for Romania’s disadvantaged
communities (NESsT 2017) After a brief intro to the current legal situation
and support mechanisms, this is a report from one Swiss-funded body of its
recent work
A note
on the Bulgarian situation https://euroalter.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Darina-Zaimova-EN-2.pdf
Press
cuttings
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