Collaborative Patterns of Long-Term Sustainability in Community Social Enterprises: An International Comparative Case Study

Sunna Kovanen

doi:10.2478/quageo-2020-0033

Abstract

Abstract The article presents results from a research on the relevance and challenges of collaboration for the long-term sustainability of rural community enterprises. The study relies on Communities of Practice and Degrowth theories. Methods include semi-standardised interviews and focused ethnography in two community enterprises in rural areas in Germany and Portugal. Main results confirm the relevance of collaborative relations with residents, public sector, peer organisations and within the teams for both stability and transformative power of the organisations’ work. Respectful handling of privileges and balance in participation and professionalisation support sustainability, whereas institutional stagnation and involuntary degrowth may risk it.

Highlights

Social entrepreneurship is considered an especially relevant solution to the challenges of rural development
This study aims, on the one hand, to enhance the understanding of the internal and contextual collaborative practices, with which community economies may flourish in the context of involuntary degrowth
The first section discusses mainly external and multi-scalar collaboration in strategic networks with public institutions and peer organisations. It supports the Community social enterprises (CSEs) with legitimacy and grant funding and helps the practitioners to spread innovative practices and challenge powerful institutions

Summary

Introduction

Social entrepreneurship is considered an especially relevant solution to the challenges of rural development. Approaching rural social enterprises (SEs) in this way may provide answers to the call, because, according to van Twuijver et al (2020), the most typical SEs in rural areas emerge from local community collaboration. These studies on CSEs point towards the challenge of stabilising the organisations’ income and management in the long term without risking the informal participation typical of the early stages (Borzaga, Galera 2016; Salemink et al 2017). This economic and institutional sustainability has been claimed to become increasingly contradictory with the CSEs’ transformative, political agency over time (Wallace 2005; Rossel 2015)

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