Social Entrepreneurs and Community Development. A Literature Analysis

Abstract

What do social entrepreneurs do? Do they play any significant role in community development? Could they really play any meaningful roles in community development? These are some of the questions that were taken on in this paper which relied immensely on secondary data. To achieve a healthy infusion of the different misconceptions of the concept of social entrepreneurship, there was an unpacking of the terms social and entrepreneurship. What emerged was a finer articulation of a concept that counts on individuals or a group of them working together to address matters of significance to a set of people. Some examples of the good that social entrepreneurs can and have done are presented, while some of their challenges are highlighted. The paper concludes by recommending a further engagement of the subject in an empirical form to better ascertain their real impact. The paper also suggests an examination of the legislative frameworks that exist in other countries for the benefit of the South African government.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n16p18