Community Based Social Enterprises fostering Inclusive Development in peripheral European Rural Areas.
Lucas Olmedo, Mara van Twuijver, Mary O’Shaughnessy.
This paper investigates how community-based social enterprises (CBSEs) foster inclusive development in European peripheral rural areas and in turn contribute to the sustainable development goals. CBSEs are seen as a subset of social enterprise that predominate in rural areas.
The research presents case studies of CBSEs in Mid-West/Ballyhoura Country in Ireland and Baixo Alentejo/Concelho de Moura in Portugal and shows how they foster social, economic and environmental development within their areas.
The activities in each area are classified across social, economic and environmental dimensions although it is acknowledged that it is often difficult to separate these out and that CBSEs are characterised by their contribution to a multidimensional (local) development.
The local embeddedness of CBSEs and their external links and networks that provide access to new resources are found to be key to their success. The analysis also ‘stresses the challenging position that rural CBSEs face in regard to maintaining their flexibility to facilitate a bottom-up community led development approach while operating in, and being reliant on, a wider top down, siloed and sometimes rigid policy framework’.
Read the full article here: CBSEs fostering Inclusive Development in peripheral European Rural Areas