Sengupta & Lehtimäki (2024). Fostering Resilience in the Rural Context Through Sustainability Agency in Social Entrepreneurship
Summary: The chapter explores how a social enterprise can combine social, environmental, and economic sustainability to foster resilience in a rural context that is coping with several challenges. The study draws upon evidence from a rural context in a desert region in India in a post-pandemic situation, and illustrates how a social enterprise combines human development, circular economy, and economic sustainability to strengthen resilience at multiple levels. Theoretically, other than using past research on social entrepreneurship, the study uses the notion of ‘sustainability agency’ that Satu Teerikangas and her colleagues postulated in the Research Handbook of Sustainability Agency. This study is relevant to CECE since it puts social sustainability at the heart of using circular economy as one of the measures for rural resilience and economic opportunity creation for communities at risk.
Usefulness of the results: For future research on similar lines and as education material in both entrepreneurship and sustainability related courses.
Authors: Subhanjan Sengupta, University of Eastern Finland; Hanna Lehtimäki, University of Eastern Finland
Publishing date: 31.11.2024
Format of the publication: Chapter of the book
Publishing platform: Disaster Risk Reduction and Rural Resilience With a Focus on Agriculture, Water, Gender and Technology (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-97-6671-0_11)