Lucas Olmedo

University College Cork | UCC · Department of Food Business and Development

The launch in 2019 of Ireland’s first National Social Enterprise Policy has meant a significant milestone for the institutitonalisation of social enterprise within the country. However, this milestone needs to be placed within a wider framework which encompasses the Irish social enterprise ecosystem and the European landscape of social enterprises....

This article explores the support structures for social innovation from a network perspective, applying a qualitative enriched Social Network Analysis (SNA) to investigate them. The analysis draws on a survey distributed among three hundred and twenty-one (321) social innovation organisation in Ireland, of which sixty-two (62) valid responses were...

Rural shrinking is an ongoing phenomenon in many parts of Europe. Against this backdrop neo‐endogenous rural development has been gaining support as a conceptual and policy approach which stress the combination of local and external actors, resources and forces for enhancing an integrated development of rural areas. Within this governance framework...

Social enterprises are recognised as relevant rural development actors. The specific features of social enterprises operating within rural areas (i.e. their relational, socially innovative and multi-stakeholder character and their focus on integrated development) concur with the principles of the neo-endogenous approach to rural development, which...

There is a growing recognition of the role that social enterprises play in rural areas. In Ireland this is formally acknowledged in recent social enterprises and rural development policies which commit to developing a suite of supports to realise the potential of social enterprises and strengthen their contribution to place-based sustainable rural...

Rural social enterprises are increasingly recognized as organisations that contribute to local development by providing goods and/or services to meet community needs and by fostering inclusive social and governance relations. The purpose of this paper is to explore how rural social enterprises engage in a plurality of socioeconomic relations with d...

Rural social enterprises are increasingly recognized as organisations that contribute to local development by providing goods and/or services to meet community needs and by fostering inclusive social and governance relations. The purpose of this paper is to explore how rural social enterprises engage in a plurality of socioeconomic relations with d...

IRS Dialog Research Reports are intended to disseminate research results ‒ in academia and practice- from ongoing or completed research projects. The focus is on informing the public, research funding institutions, the media and relevant social institutions.

There is a growing perception that social enterprises represent a significant solution to the range of contemporary challenges facing rural areas across Europe. However, while much of the existing studies of European rural social enterprises provide a rich insight into specific case studies, as of yet, there is no comprehensive review of the breadt...

Social enterprises (SEs) have recently attracted great attention due to their ability to combine social and economic goals through entrepreneurial and innovative strategies. Our study focuses on a subtype of SEs that predominates in rural areas, i.e. Community-Based SEs (CBSEs). This paper presents two case studies of CBSEs that have been operating...