Social Enterprise Journal issue on "Social Enterprises, Social Innovation and the Creative Economy"

The arising creative-social sphere is an emerging phenomenon that this special issue of the Social Enterprise Journal aims to investigate further. The deadline for paper submissions is 30th of March 2019.

Social enterprises are increasingly recognized for its economic, social and environmental contribution to society. A wealth of research is emerging in this field. The Social Enterprise Journal provides a dedicated outlet for this research and a forum for debate.

Even though social innovation in its essence is as old as mankind, its academic relevance as a field of study in the social sciences has gained momentum mainly over the last decade. The shortcomings of techno-capitalism as a driver of social change has led to the rising prominence of the concept of social innovation rooted in various fields. This is now a research concerning academics from business and management studies as well as community development and has recently become a focus also of researchers in the arts and the wider creative economy.

The creative industries are per their definition linked to a constant strive for innovation and with that hold a role as a source for wider economic paradigm shifts. Furthermore, with their affinity to apply their problem-solving skills beyond their own economic sector, creative industries’ agents increasingly establish social enterprises and aim to address fundamental societal problems and needs. Along with the shifting roles of the public, private and social sector they can thus become trailblazers of social innovations. Novel business models and financial approaches, such as the recent interest of social finance in the creative industries, can support this development further.

Guest Editors:

Dr Roberta Comunian (Reader, King’s College London)

Denderah Rickmers (PhD Candidate, King’s College London)

Andrea Nanetti (Associate Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

Gaps in knowledge and theory concerning (1) understanding the process of the creation, legitimisation, absorption and institutionalisation of creative social enterprises to foster creative social -creative innovations and (2) creative-social enterprises, their business models, trends and challenges in general are of interest. The editors invite empirical and conceptual papers addressing these two broad subject areas, as well as on topics such as (and this list is not intended to be exhaustive):

The creative economy has formed an integral part in policy and economy debates and agenda settings in many countries in recent years. Likewise, social innovation as a process and phenomenon is widely recognized in social policy debates. (How) Do the two relate, inform, overlap or hinder each other?
In particular what is the role of policy and institutional frameworks in support and hindering the development of a socially driven creative sector?
The creative industries lie outside the realm of common social enterprise domains (e.g. health, sustainability, education) that are focus of much research. What old and new business models are adopted by creative social enterprises? (How) Does that influence their ability to attract social finance and capital?
Creativity and e.g. design thinking methods have developed into highly desirable skills and tools in enterprises in basically any given industry. What are tools that creative entrepreneurs and enterprises posses, that are relevant specifically for social enterprises and social entrepreneurs and vise versa?
The creative economy is dominated by micro and small and medium-sized businesses. Entrepreneurial expertise and business acumen is often limited. Do social entrepreneurs and enterprises poses means to address that need?

The deadline for full paper submissions is 30th of March 2019.

Submissions to this special issue must be made through Social Enterprise Journal’s submission system. When submitting your paper, please ensure that the correct Special Issue is selected from the dropdown menu on page 4 of the submission process.

Submitted papers should follow SEJ submission guidelines and be written in good English to be fully considered. The submitted papers will go through the usual double-blind review process as per the guidelines of the Journal.

Enquiries should be directed to the special issue corresponding editors: Dr Roberta Comunian (Roberta.Comunian@kcl.ac.uk) and Denderah Rickmers (denderah.rickmers@kcl.ac.uk)

All information on this Call for Papers can be found on the publisher's website.

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