5th EMES International PhD Summer School

Rationale

Despite commonplace depictions, economies are made of a much broader organizational diversity than the sole “for-profit” business model. Economic activities are undertaken by a broad range of organizations, which each have specific assets in the production of certain types of goods and services. In the context of such diversity, organizations that combine an entrepreneurial dynamic to provide services or goods with the primacy of their social aims are increasingly mentioned and experienced as a promising tool to deal with some of the current economic, social and environmental challenge.

Depending on the context, these initiatives can be identified as the “solidarity economy”, the “social economy”, “social enterprises”, or “solidarity enterprises” (SEs) PhD students coming from different disciplinary backgrounds (such as sociology, management, economics, political sciences, and so on) whose research projects are connected to this field are welcome to apply for this summer school. Individual research projects can target SEs’ organizational level as well as the context in which these SEs are embedded (social, political, economic or cultural backgrounds).

Description

After four successful editions of the EMES PhD Summer Schools, at the University of Corsica (France) in 2008, Roskilde University (Denmark)in 2010, the University of Trento (Italy) in 2012, the West University of Timișoara (Romania) in 2014, the fifth edition will be held at Glasgow Caledonian University, in partnership with the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health (GCU-YC) in Glasgow (UK) from 22-25 June 2016.

Some 150 students from over 35 countries have participated in these unique learning events. PhDs constitute a central part of EMES as shown by the special membership category for PhD students, the seat reserved for PhD students in the EMES Board of Directors, and various concrete outputs. Some of these outputs include: the publication of a PhD Reader, the launching of an EMES PhD Student Network in 2008, the creation of the dedicated EMES Junior Experts Blog (EJEB) in 2011, the creation of an active Facebook group, and recently the EMES Alumni Network.

In this context, EMES and GCU-YC jointly organise the fifth EMES PhD Summer School (5EMESPhD) aimed at researchers at the level of PhD or advanced Masters who are attracted to conduct research in the wide fields of social entrepreneurship and social enterprise, social economy and solidarity economy. With this event, EMES and GCU-YC aim to:

• Strengthen the training of PhD students by means of methodological and theoretical lectures, debates, and professional and social media workshops;
• Emphasize the research design and methodology involved in any research project, specifically in a doctoral path;
• Provide personalised feedback and support via well-supported small group discussion sessions on participants’ research projects, their research questions, approaches and theoretical understandings; more precisely, in addition to various opportunities of informal discussion, at least a full hour will be devoted to every student’s research project within group sessions (for presentation by the student, feed-back by professors and their peers, discussion and synthesis of recommendations);
• Provide space for social and intellectual discussion so that doctoral students will have ample opportunity to establish and expand their own peer networks and benefit from contacts and feedback from established scholars;
• Encourage a broad and diverse range of participants, since exchanges with researchers from different countries, continents, cultures and academic disciplines can support stimulating and fertile reflections on research approaches.

Faculty Body

The 5EMESPhD faculty body will include well-known professors from recognised research centres covering a wide spectrum of research themes, and this multi-disciplinary approach will represent a major strength for the participating doctoral students. We will also aim to maintain a high level of relevance and topicality by ensuring that discussions and debates are located within the current profound crisis of capitalism, where the three SE pillars offer a viable and socially innovative response for the different regions of the world.

Andrea Bassi – AICCON & University of Bologna, Italy
Jacques Defourny – Center for Social Economy, HEC-University of Liege, Belgium
Cam Donaldson (chair) – Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health, Glasgow Caledonian University, United Kingdom
Sílvia Ferreira – Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Giulia Galera – European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises, Italy
Helen Haugh, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
Lars Hulgård – Center for Social Entrepreneurship, Roskilde University, Denmark
Benjamin Huybrechts – Center for Social Economy, HEC-University of Liege, Belgium
Jean-Louis Laville – CNAM/LISE, France
Linda L. Andersen, Roskilde University, Denmark
Marthe Nyssens (chair) – Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium
Rory Ridley-Duff, Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom
Mary O’Shaughnessy, CCS, University College Cork, Ireland
Victor Pestoff – ICSS, Ersta Sköndal högskola, Sweden
Michael Roy– Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health, Glasgow Caledonian University, United Kingdom
Simon Teasdale– Glasgow Caledonian University, United Kingdom

More information here