Endringsagent og etablerer: En diskursanalyse av fortellinger om etablering og drift av sosiale virksomheter

Abstract

Social entrepreneurship has growing attention in Norway, like in other European countries. The academic and political literature on the subject has also grown. Today, there is a growing number of social businesses established, in most Western Countries. Questions of how to organize it, financing and what it’s effects are, growing concerns, in Norway and other countries. In this thesis, I will explore the intention behind entrepreneurial behavior in social businesses, and see what dicourses it constructs. The master thesis, was conducted through an analysis of interviews, searching for discoursive contructions of the social in entrepreneurship. I argue that the social dimention is present in all expressions of entrepreneurship. And that the conventional motivations and personality- traits are also inherent in the intentions of social entrepreneurs. I also base the thesis on previous research and theory and relate the findings to the social entrepreneurship agenda in Norway. Overall, there are 3 discourses that constructs identities in social entrepreneurship. The constructions relate to different contexts for entrepreneurship; welfare, business-development and social policy. The discourses focus on individual and contextual conditions that shape the entrepreneurs behavior and conditions for setting up social businesses. It presents some perspectives which can be relevant for practical policy for social entrepreneurship. I also argue, that this is an understudied area of entrepreneurship. The thesis, mainly contributes to developing an understanding of the relevance of studying entrepreneurship in welfare and social area. It can also be relevant for other areas of social innovation and entrepreneurship.