Mary O'Shaughnessy

Cork University Business School · 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...

The point of departure in this article are the pressing challenges in countless rural communities that provide the backdrop for the emergence of socially innovative approaches. The pivotal point is that in the respective communities the conditions of daily life are unfavorable compared to many urban areas due to limited economic productivity, poor...

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...

Population shrinkage has gained attention from academics and policymakers in recent years, due to the long-term implications the phenomenon has for public service delivery and the viability of urban and rural communities. We visualise the socio-temporal evolution of population shrinkage and growth, utilising a spatially rectified dataset containing...

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...

The WISE-opportunities, challenges and community justice research, policy and practice seminar took place on December 2nd 2019 at Lapps Quay, UCC. This seminar was attended by over 100 guest invitees including, but not confined, to WISEs operating in the Criminal Justice System, Probation & Prison Services, Cork City Council.

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...

One particular field of Social Enterprise – WISEs or Work Integration Social Enterprises – has become increasingly recognised as being emblematic of the dynamics of social enterprises and now constitutes a major sphere of their activity globally. From their early roots, focusing on providing productive activity for the blind and those with other ph...

What is termed the social economy in Ireland includes charities, co-operatives, voluntary associations and non-profits. However, the label is not widely used to describe them collectively so that many organisations within the wider social economy do not identify themselves with, or even fully understand, the term. The concept of social enterprise f...

A range of push and pull factors encourage Irish farmers to diversify their operations, but they remain largely reluctant entrepreneurs, wedded to productivist models of agriculture. This paper is based on a study which involved intensive inter-views conducted throughout Ireland in 2013 with a sample of 15 farm households who are "bucking the trend...

In Ireland social enterprises are seen primarily as non-profit organisations driven by social objectives. This article presents qualitative data gathered through a series of in depth interviews with representatives from five rural-based Irish social enterprises. The objectives of the article are to provide short descriptions of these social enterpr...

PurposeThis chapter aims to explore the means by which rural food business networks can contribute to sustainable rural development. Methodology/approachThis chapter explores the role of rural food business networks in sustainable rural development. This is conducted initially through a literature review. This is followed by presentation of case st...

Cooperation is a fundamental aspect of everyday life; in meeting the day-to-day challenges, be they economic or social, individuals in fami- lies and communities cooperate to achieve better outcomes for them- selves. In rural areas, challenges arising from a scattered and low density of population mean that the private or public sector often does n...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of a rural‐based, social enterprise organising rural transportation to improve access to remote areas. It highlights the very important impacts of such a service for local residents and describes some of the challenges threatening the long‐term sustainability of this local initiative. Design...

One of the most important developments in small-scale agriculture and in local food retailing in the last decade has been the emergence of a new generation of farmers' markets in countries such as Ireland, the USA, the UK, New Zealand and Australia. Farmers' markets are now a significant alternative source of sales, distribution and marketing for m...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the limitations of specific statutory support for the long‐term survival of rural based Irish work integration social enterprises (WISEs). Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on empirical research derived from a combination of qualitative and qualitative research methods which entailed...

In European economies, the importance of a "third sector", distinct from the private for-profit and public sectors, is increasingly being acknowledged, from various points of view. First, it clearly appears that beyond the diversity of conceptions and labels used to identify such third sector, the latter has gained economic significance in terms of...

Over the past decade, rural development has emerged as the second pillar of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and relative to LEADER and other programs, significant resources are directed through this policy. The development of the second pillar is set against the background of the inadequacies of a policy based on a single sectoral approach and...

A growing trend in Europe is for co-operatives and other social enterprises to take over and improve the quality of services previously provided directly by the state, by religious institutions or by investor-driven businesses, as well as provide services which are not readily available in local communities. These organisations are often run by vol...