{"id":1242,"date":"2010-09-23T10:10:50","date_gmt":"2010-09-23T10:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localenterprise.wordpress.com\/?p=1242"},"modified":"2010-09-23T10:10:50","modified_gmt":"2010-09-23T10:10:50","slug":"social-enterprise-and-good-work-provoked-by-craig-dearden-phillips","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2010\/09\/23\/social-enterprise-and-good-work-provoked-by-craig-dearden-phillips\/","title":{"rendered":"Social Enterprise and Good Work&#8230;Provoked by Craig Dearden-Phillips"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Craig Dearden-Phillips wrote an excellent piece on the need to <a href=\"http:\/\/nakedentrepreneur.blogspot.com\/2010\/09\/out-of-blocks.html\">financially incentivise social entrepreneurs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>When I read it I was not sure whether I agreed violently or disagreed violently. \u00a0Let&#8217;s just say I &#8216;felt&#8217; strongly about it. \u00a0It troubled me. \u00a0I was provoked. \u00a0As I am sure Craig was when he wrote the piece.<\/p>\n<p>Schumacher (Fritz, not Michael) helped me to explore the basis of my feelings.<\/p>\n<p>He\u00a0pointed out that from the perspective of the employer, work is a bad thing. \u00a0It represents a cost. \u00a0It is to be minimised. \u00a0If possible eradicated &#8211; handed over to a robot. \u00a0This truth always makes me smile when the government talks of the private sector &#8216;creating jobs&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>From the perspective of the worker too it is \u00a0often a bad\u00a0thing. What Schumacher called a &#8216;<a href=\"http:\/\/dictionary.reference.com\/browse\/disutility\">disutility<\/a>&#8216;. A temporary but significant\u00a0sacrifice\u00a0of &#8216;leisure and comfort&#8217; for which compensation is earned.<\/p>\n<p>Schumacher pointed toward a Buddhist perspective where work serves three purposes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>to provide an opportunity to use and develop potential<\/li>\n<li>to join with others in the achievement of a shared task &#8211; to provide opportunities for meaningful association<\/li>\n<li>to produce the goods and services that are necessary for what he called a &#8216;becoming existence&#8217;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>He then went on to say<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>to organize work in such a manner that it becomes meaningless, boring, stultifying, or nerve-racking for the worker would be little short of criminal; it would indicate a greater concern with goods than with people, an evil lack of compassion and a soul-destroying degree of attachment to the most primitive side of this worldly existence<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>What\u00a0can\u00a0we do to make sure that more of our work is &#8216;good work&#8217; and not merely a disutility for which we are compensated?<\/p>\n<p>What products and services do we really need for a &#8216;becoming existence&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>This for me is the true role of the &#8216;Social Enterprise&#8217; sector in our economy. \u00a0The development of good work. \u00a0The enhancement of association and compassion. \u00a0To provide a real alternative to the mainstream work as profitable disutility philosophy of much (but not all) of the private sector.<\/p>\n<p>And there is no good reason why we should not take sufficient\u00a0value\u00a0from our business to lead a &#8216;becoming existence&#8217; is there? \u00a0So I agree with Craig&#8217;s thesis, but not with the line of argument that took him there. \u00a0Are the risks really any greater? \u00a0Can a business be anything other than directly social?<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">I&#8217;m trying to learn just to\u00a0<em>die<\/em> with\u00a0<em>pride<\/em>,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Like the birds and the trees and the earth in time<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">But I&#8217;ve got this complex and it makes me fear,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">That I&#8217;ll die knowing nothing and feeling less.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/music.hopeandsocial.com\/album\/architect-of-this-church\">Hope and Social<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">Now, anyone for some truly social enterprise?<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align:left;\">\n<\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Posts\"><ul class=\"entry-meta\"><li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Olympic Gold &#8211; It all starts with a dream&#8230;.\" href=\"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2012\/08\/10\/olympic-gold-it-all-starts-with-a-dream\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Olympic Gold &#8211; It all starts with a dream&#8230;.<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"An imaginary open letter: To those who would &#8216;engage&#8217; us&#8230;\" href=\"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2012\/08\/09\/an-imaginary-open-letter-to-those-who-would-engage-us\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">An imaginary open letter: To those who would &#8216;engage&#8217; us&#8230;<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Some thoughts on Best City outcomes\" href=\"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2012\/07\/05\/some-thoughts-on-best-city-outcomes\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Some thoughts on Best City outcomes<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Some Barriers to Engagement\" href=\"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2012\/06\/13\/some-barriers-to-engagement\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Some Barriers to Engagement<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Getting to Grips with Social Finance &#8211; FREE TRAINING\" href=\"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2012\/06\/12\/getting-to-grips-with-social-finance-free-training\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Getting to Grips with Social Finance &#8211; FREE TRAINING<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Craig Dearden-Phillips wrote an excellent piece on the need to financially incentivise social entrepreneurs. When I read it I was not sure whether I agreed violently or disagreed violently. \u00a0Let&#8217;s just say I &#8216;felt&#8217; strongly about it. \u00a0It troubled me. \u00a0I was provoked. \u00a0As I am sure Craig was when he wrote the piece. Schumacher [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[36,65,189,191,200,210],"class_list":["post-1242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-enterprise","tag-community","tag-enterprise","tag-social-capital","tag-social-enterprise","tag-strategy","tag-transformation","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}