By the People, for the People

Social enterprise: I’d heard of the concept before before but never took the time to try and understand. So, in search of enlightenment, I joined the interactive talk on whether social enterprise could be the best alternative to capitalism.

This talk was led by a Dr Andrew Reeves, as part of the Green Light Festival, someone who showed great enthusiasm in bringing about social change to the UK.

For those of you who don’t know, a social enterprise is a business which trades for a social purpose. As clearly illustrated in the session, these businesses don’t follow the scheme of having all the profits go to the boss and the shareholders. Instead it goes to everyone who has a stake within the business, all the workers who managed it equally, and is used to sustain the enterprise indefinitely.

Dr Reeves even provided some examples of social enterprises such as AFC Wimbledon, a football team created and managed by the fans when their original team moved to Milton Keynes. Local shops and community centres have increasingly become controlled by the locals and by the community.

A good question which was presented was when social enterprise is appropriate and when is it not. It doesn’t solve every problem but at least it does solve problems.

The session was enough to plant the idea within me that perhaps social enterprise is the way forward. I wonder if you’ll think the same.


S.M. Knight

Light at the End of the Tunnel

I've been in a bit of a dark place for a while now but I must say things are finally looking up.

Without going into too much detail, things have taken a downwards spiral recently: my butter has been spoiled, someone stole my dog and worst of all my kill death ratio on Call of Duty has fallen below 1.6

But now I can say with great satisfaction that tonight I will not cry myself to sleep. For next week, here at De Montfort University, there will be the Cultural eXchanges week. It will be the Bomb! A complete boss: so totally Rad it's not even funny. They have it all: a vast and divergent selection of top quality shit ranging from more conventional subjects such as poetry and writers' lectures to discussions on whether the social enterprise is an alternative to capitalism.

Book your places now!


Matthew King