Situating community enterprise: A theoretical exploration

Peter Somerville, Gerard McElwee

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

168 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper argues that enterprises can be understood primarily in terms of their social bases and that the social base of community enterprise lies in community of some kind. It reviews current conceptualizations in this area such as 'community-based enterprise' (CBE) and 'social enterprise', and argues that CBE is only one form of community enterprise. Community entrepreneurs are understood in terms of their position on a continuum of community participation, as economic/social/political activists, and community enterprise is explained largely in terms of the balance of social capital functions served by its overall activity. The relationship between membership of a community enterprise and membership of a community is explored, and represented in terms of two criteria: the pool from which enterprise members are drawn and the rule by which such members are selected from the pool. This paper illustrates its arguments in relation to two English community enterprises, Coin Street Community Builders based in London and The Eldonians based in Liverpool.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)317-330
Number of pages14
JournalEntrepreneurship and Regional Development
Volume23
Issue number5-6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2011
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Situating community enterprise: A theoretical exploration'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this