Revised Guidelines—Final Capstone/ Reflection Paper: The objective of this assignment is to synthesize what you have learned in this course about how social economy enterprises can contribute to social and economic development historically or in contemporary times. These papers should be between 2000 and 2500 words long, not including the bibliography. Citations and bibliography should follow the APA style guide. You have two options for approaching this assignment:
1. Consider the lessons from one or more of the different case studies we examined in the course about what worked and what failed in different case studies (for example, the cases of the Wheat Pool in Saskatchewan, Mondragon in Spain or the Landless Worker’s Movement in Brazil). Here, you must engage directly with one or more theories presented through the different course readings. These include but are not limited to, the challenges of building solidarity within capitalism as theorized by Chibber, the problem of development as “helping self-help” as theorized by Ellerman or the importance of “embedded autonomy” between the government and business (including social economy businesses) in successful processes of economic development as theorized by Evans, social innovation as theorized by Mulgan or economic missions as theorized by Mazzucato. This option must engage with at least five readings from the course syllabus to integrate the theories studied into reflections about one or more of the case studies analyzed in the different weeks of the course.
2. Consider an idea for a contemporary social innovation or social enterprise start-up you researched as part of the group projects or an existing social economy from your independent research using one or more theories studied in the course to analyze the prospects or causes underlying its success. In discussing the idea for a contemporary start-up or existing organization, you need to engage with one or more of the theories from the course syllabus. If you choose this option, you only need to engage with at least two sources from the course syllabus. However, if you choose this option, you must include at least three sources (either primary or secondary) that pertain to an existing social economy enterprise or that you came across as part of the literature review for the idea developed in your group project discussions. Some ideas that were discussed in our class discussions and initial presentation of project ideas included community land trusts, cooperatively owned or non-profit community centers, and cooperative housing developments in Toronto.
The Journal of Socio-Economics 36 (2007) 561–577
Helping self-help: The fundamental conundrum
of development assistance
David Ellerman
University of California at Riverside, 4044 Mt. Vernon Ave., Riverside, CA 92507, United States