The COST action EMPOWER SE attempts to address existing fragmentation in the levels of knowledge regarding social enterprises (SEs), from both a geographical and a disciplinary point of view, as well as from the perspective of different categories of stakeholders.
There is a challenge in achieving a full understanding of the diversity of SE models emerging across Europe and globally, including their conditions of emergence and development, and their contribution to the general interest. This knowledge is necessary to improve our understanding of their contribution to society and to addressing major contemporary societal challenges.
Since SE is a concept embedded in socio-economic contexts possessing highly different economic, social, cultural, welfare structures, it is vital to facilitate the connecting of existing local knowledge and establishing a program for cross-national comparative research, including peripheral regions where the SE scientific community is still embryonic or inexistent.
This EMPOWER-SE Action aims at
- Contributing to a comprehensive understanding of the diversity of SE models emerging across Europe and globally;
- Empowering the next generation of SE scholars, focusing on expanding the SE scientific community to less research-intensive countries where it is still embryonic or non-existing;
- Fostering evidence-based policy from local to European levels and supporting the development of SE and their eco-systems in synergy with main industry representatives and stakeholders;
- Implementing networking mechanisms to connect fragmented communities and to contribute to closing the gap between the scientific community, policy- makers and society throughout Europe and beyond.
The main networking mechanisms to be organized by EMPOWER-SE include:
- Working groups (WG)
- Conferences, meetings, seminars and talks
- Training schools
- Short-term scientific missions
