Becoming a social entrepreneur: Individual and collective learning in communities of practice

Authors: Morteza Eslahchi & Ali Osman
Stockholm University, Sweden

Edition: Volume 61, Number 2, July 2021

Introduction: This article aims to analyse how one becomes a social entrepreneur. For this purpose, we interviewed the founders of five social entrepreneurial organisations active in the field of social integration in Sweden. To analyse our data we found situated learning theory in communities of practice to be a relevant lens. The results indicate that these social entrepreneurs’ previous participation in integration activities was a critical factor in generating ideas for new and innovative activities. Moreover, the network of individuals and organisations that they obtained in this period assisted them on the way to learn essential skills and develop their social entrepreneurial organisations. Becoming a social entrepreneur thus seems to be a result of both individual and collective learning processes that entail learning from concrete experiences embedded in specific organisational settings.

Keywords: social entrepreneurship, communities of practice, adult learning, situated learning, experiential learning, organisational learning

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 61:2. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.