Engaged entrepreneurshi

pthe partnership between social

engagement and enterpreneurship

Maurice Hermans

I grew up in Social Work

> BA in Community Work> MA Comparative European Social Work> Practitioner in different SW organisations

> Researcher CESRT ZUYD University> Director Betawerk

(How) can social engagement and entrepreneurship

form a partnership?

...and is the traditional social work institutions still the best position to foster social change?

PM: “I want to end the idea of the state as a happiness machine”

Social Work practice

> inward looking> re-active, not pro-active> little climate for innovative

approaches

EU: social entrepreneurship

> positive return to society> principles of transparancy &

accountability> emotional connection to business

goals> link to engagement of founders

Growth is shrinkingshrinkage is growing

Shrinkage

< hardware< software< mentalware

City of Heerlen

< 90.000< former mining city< shrinking city #1 in Netherlands

< voted “worst liveable city NL” (6x)

“Heerlen is on the losing end of globalisation ”

Betawerk creates inspired ideas and interactive media

for change

Change?

> for organisations> issues of regional transition

> developing communities

> inspire re-thinking> facilitate public debate

→ interactive media is our main tool

Our population1 healthcare professional

3 software developers2 designers

4 editors2 office/project managers

1 cultural scientist1 history teacher1 sales manager

1 biologist (73 years old)1 social work professional

(by the way, we're a family business)

Two

examples

How> public – private partnerships> from heavy institutions to light

networks> engage your creative community> support bottom-up initiatives> invest in knowledge transfer> think cross-disciplinary (step out of organizational

bounderies)> use today's tools

So yessocial engagement

and entrepreneurship can go hand in hand

You can find me on

> de.linkedin.com/in/mauricehermans/

> www.ibeta.eu/blog

> www.slideshare.net/MauriceHermans1