European Summer School on Social Economy, the second day described by Dina Rakin
Dina Rakin* shares her impressions on the second day of the European Summer School on Social Economy in Bertinoro.
Dennis R. Young and Silvia Ferreira, lecturers of the day, were committed to place the concept of personalisation into the existing theory and practice of Non-Profits, mainly Social Economy and Social Entrepreneurship. User is the key word. How the type of financing of Social Enterprise and its legal form influence users and how the characteristics of a social entrepreneur respond to the users!
Even if it is hard to place the concept of personalisation into existent knowledge, the role of governments is highly important and could help stimulate its development, depending on the approach. Governments create space for personalisation once their programs are directed toward users directly or indirectly (over social enterprise).
Curiosity of the students was tickled with the introduction of Social Innovation and the contrasting concepts of individualisation and personalisation. Social Enterprise can provoke or promote both of these concepts, depending on the chosen approach. Still, personalization seems to be more relevant for Social Enterprise due to its commitment to common values, collective problems and the greater impact of its activities within society. One of the worries about the Social Innovation projects, regardless of the concept of personalisation, is its sustainability and how hard is to predict or estimate factors which could be assured in order to be adopted by a system – policy integration.
During the sessions students were highly excited to present their thesis, but also to listen and to contribute to thesis of others. The main topics of the day were the strengthening and supporting of the women involvement in ICS sector, in Palestine; alternative currencies, a concept suggested from students from Frankfurt; Foodbanks in Italy and UK and the them of Social Banking introduced by a participant from GoodBee, Vienna.
*Dina Rakin is researcher at the European Movement in Serbia and she participates at the ESSE with a scholarship funded by Euricse.
