South Africa’s Community Work Programme as Social Entrepreneurship: A Sociological Perspective

ABSTRACT

The study of social entrepreneurship is gaining momentum in academia, in research institutions as well as in practice; however, there is a lack of sociological analysis of social entrepreneurship. This article argues that social entrepreneurship needs to be understood from a social sciences perspective. As the research has pointed out, sociological literature does not have much to say about social entrepreneurship even though social entrepreneurship is an important process through which significant social change occurs in contemporary societies. Using a South African case study, the article analyses social entrepreneurship from a sociological perspective, citing the process of establishing the community work programme (CWP) in South Africa as an illustrative case of social entrepreneurship. Such an analysis departs from a business school-type of perspective which focuses on business models, earned income and financial sustainability.

Keywords:

• social entrepreneurship
• community work programme
• South Africa
• sociological perspective
• social change

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rejoice Shumba

REJOICE SHUMBA is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Fort Hare University, South Africa. Her main research interests are in the broad fields of social entrepreneurship, social change and social impact investing. She has an interdisciplinary approach to research. She has been involved in various commissioned and academic research projects at national, regional and international levels. She has been a keynote speaker on social entrepreneurship and the social economy at various conferences and is a key thinker on social innovation, social entrepreneurship, and social enterprises.