The Cultural Anthropology of Social Entrepreneurship

I agree little is thought of in this arena.

Global Center for Cultural Entrepreneurship (GCCE) www.culturalentrepreneur.org, www.socialtext.net/gcce

One of the areas I'm looking into is social networking to connect cultural entrepreneurs and the people interested in working with them - defined as craftspeople, traditional artisans, documententary filmmakers, and other artistic business people. For example, we are setting up a training in New Mexico for Native American artists. And, we hope to link them with South African crafts people.

Drew Tulchin drew@socialenterprise.net 202-256-2692

Social Enterprise Associates - www.socialenterprise.net New Ventures Non-profit Earned Income Microfinance * Economic Development

Though our focus is largely on Ukraine, the Balkans came to mind first in the cultural cohesion that was applied forcibly under Tito and the time bomb that erupted when he departed.

There are multiple cultural conflicts around us. Not least in the awareness of Famine/Genocide which my own country does not recognise as such. Yet it's a deeply held feeling of unresolved injustice to many in Eastern Europe which also reflects back on the position of denial many of us took at the time.

We have the politics, of establishing a single national language, considering Russian the language of their former persecutors, within this there's a repatriated Islamic community claiming their ancestral land back off the would-be oligarch developers and factions trying to create ethnic conflict for political ends.

This I know isn't so obvious a change of culture, being geographically close to West Europe, but there are things hard to overcome, not least the zero sum mindset and the bewilderment at social enterprise.

"Making business for other people, are you mad or some more communists?", they sometimes enquire.

When we get through they've been known to say "Ah that's what socialism should have been!"

Thanks, Drew, for your initial post, which really gets things moving in interesting directions. I hope to say more after spending some time on the site you point to, but wanted to get a quick word of thanks in to you - and Jeff - right away.

Sometimes very subtle differences conceal the roots of great conflicts, I think. I'm not enough of a historian to know how good the analogy is, but I sometimes get the impression the First World War was essentially a family feud, with each of the sides swinging great nations in their wake... But there's also an extraordinary divide represented by two world religions and the cultures they have inspired.

I hope you will say more about this...

Perhaps there's synchronicity in this subject arising just now, it was a conversation I woke wanting to enlarge on. In just the last few days, both the Washington Post and Christian Science Monitor have broached the topic of poverty eradication, the alternate foreign intervention that might have brought conflicting cultures on-side. Similarly, the CSIS think tank prescribes a Smart Power strategy for Foreign Relations.

It was this conversation, along with another with Yunus followers which brought this to mind. That we both see social business as a enabler but with slightly different ultimate perspectives.

I'm thinking of Wilfred Owen right now, when he said, "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity. Yet these elegies are to this generation in no sense consolatory. They may be to the next. All a poet can do today is warn. That is why true Poets must be truthful."

In his absence, I will say that such was the intent of my colleague with his paper on poverty eradication, a warning 5 years prior to 9/11 that leaving people in poverty was to break all tenets of civilisation, that they would be forced to defend themselves by whatever means.

In that context, all of our effort have a "swords into plowshares" motivation, for example that Islamic community in Crimea to be targeted with economic Smart Bombs as apposed to cruise missiles, making a not too oblique reference to a preceding Balkans conflict.

Of our Great War whose pity inspired the poetry, a spark from the Balkans in the assasination of Arch Duke Ferdinand, representing the oppression of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and a nationalist with a pistol, divided a world along lines of cultural loyalty and wasted a generation.

A gentleman in the villages of India has recently been awarded a Patent by the Government of India for Inventing an improved system for producing vegetable dyes. His work, as i had kept track of the development, modernises a system which was practised in India before the arrival of the British, would have an huge impact not only in his village/district/country but the entire South Asian region. I have been approached by the gentleman to provide him with Consulting services in line with the modern practices. The plan is to produce such bio & vegetable dyes at the cottage industry level withou building a big factory. This would help in sustainable development without disturbing the balance of nature but at the same time modernize a process critically important to all of us.

Thanks

SBR

I'm on the run today, having just moved into a new place, unfurnished, so this is a quick note between tasks, with a proper response hopefully this evening.

I just wanted to say I was struck by your phrase: all of our effort have a "swords into plowshares" motivation - are you referring specifically to your own work, or (as I suspect) do you think this is true in principle of all social entrepreneurs - and if so, should we be cognisant of it, does it shed fresh light on what we're doing, is it a "marketing" point, and so on...

It seems to me that issues of peace and coexistence can't be overlooked wherever there are two or more cultures tackling the same problems in the same place.

It's where P-CED started, Charles, with a point made in the paper that launched us in 1996, though I wasn't part of it until 2003/4. Specifically:-

By leaving people in poverty, at risk of their lives due to lack of basic living essentials, we have stepped across the boundary of civilization. We have conceded that these people do not matter, are not important. Allowing them to starve to death, freeze to death, die from deprivation, or simply shooting them, is in the end exactly the same thing. Inflicting or allowing poverty on a group of people or an entire country is a formula for disaster.

That's something that has been taken on board by most of us post 9/11 I suspect. If there's a marketing point, for example a recent slogan we'd used - 'Peace: It's cheaper and more fun' it's that like the concept of starting micro enterpreneurs, the overall investment is returnable and re-useable when compared to the deployment of weapons.

I'm trying to think of any example of two or more cultures tackling the same problems, but can't. Not unless that includes tackling access to land and water by force assisted by other countries that supply armaments.

Hi, Sugato:

Thanks for your contribution, which is very much to the point.

I get worried when the big multinationals patent something that has been in use in a cultural setting for generations, as I believe happened in India with the "nim" tree - although please correct me if I'm misinformed - but a patent which keeps a cultural tradition protected for village-level use seems to me to be a very sensible arrangement.

Please feel free to tell us more about the motives behind this choice, and it's impact, if you have time and would like to do so.

A great discussion Charles, just getting back to what you were saying about the "family feuds" of world wars. It's a good example of how cultures have to shift with time. Nations that were once enemies 60+ years ago are now finding ways to be business partners. To set the stage for globalization to work in a post industrial age all nation states need strong institutions with universal rules, including universal beliefs and values. This leads me to your point about " very subtle differences concealing roots of great conflicts" It's a real pity religions have to rush to moral judgements over other religions, take for example the pope's comments about Islam last year. The internal prism of logic of one religion doesn't reflect well on another's, but the founders of all religions had the same story of truth, that we just all have to learn to get on, the greatest pity in the world is war in the name of religion.

I'm just reflecting on the correlation between Jeff's motto:

Peace: It's cheaper and more fun

and Jo's very clear expression of the role that business can play in peace:

Nations that were once enemies 60+ years ago are now finding ways to be business partners.

Much to think about there...

*

I seem to have helped us drift a little away from the topic of cultural impact / social entrepreneurship

any further comments there?

You pose the question “How do we preserve rhythms of activity, ways of knowing, and entire languages which have developed…across centuries?”

Cultural diversity, like biological diversity, is an adaptive response to the environment and is therefore only sustainable as a living culture if it continues to assist communities to thrive and respond to changing environments. At the core of any culture is the means of survival, which might be summarized in terms of employment and inter and intra group relationships. Efforts to maintain the language, customs, arts and crafts of any culture must be linked to the way in which we develop employment opportunities.

A concept that could be adopted from social work here is that of “strengths-based” development. In the context of social entrepreneurship, this would involve ensuring that all business development started from a foundation in local knowledge and skill. The example of the use of traditional vegetable dyes in India is a great example of how traditional know-how may surpass modern technology if it is appropriately understood and developed.

Strengths based practice challenges the inherent negativity of a problem-solution approach and seems to match the positive energy of social entrepreneurship with its identification of opportunities. A strengths based approach would emphasize working in partnership with local communities building on the communities own aspirations, traditions and resources. The goal is not to maintain an existing culture but to empower it to adapt to new circumstances in unique and locally relevant ways. As an example, where Native American and First Nations cultures are thriving in North America, there are clear signs that the cultures have adapted and grown with the introduction of new technologies and concepts of development and economy.

As an ethnomusicologist/hotelier developing a culturally responsible art and music resort, I see various directions to a "cultural anthropology" of "social entrepreneurship." Two that jump to my mind:

1. An examination of "social entrepreneurship" as a culture in and of itself (what are our assumptions as social entrepreneurs? what are our values? what is meaningful to us as a group of people, a community?). Attending a social venture development class at UC Berkeley's MBA program and participating in the Global Social Venture Competition immediately after I finished my MA in ethnomusicology spurred me at many times to re-question many of the value systems that social entrepreneurship has inherited from its predecessors (business, economics, social work, nonprofits, etc.). A look in the mirror may be another topic for a separate forum.
2. A culturally-minded breed of social entrepreneurship: entrepreneurs whose work may be better qualified as "cultural entrepreneurship." Cultural entrepreneurs, as I call them, privilege a cultural outlook when they examine the social impact of their work. At Haas, I was baffled when I was asked to quantify the social impact indicators of my venture in dollars and cents. Coming from ethnomusicology with all its postmodern tendencies, quantifying the impact of an arts experience/education seemed over-simplistic and at times even misleading. The quantification of social impact may work in some other field within social entrepreneurship, but isn't always helpful for those of us who deal with culture. And this experience led me to recognize the great rift that exists between "social entrepreneurs" and "cultural entrepreneurs." As cultural entrepreneurs, we may succeed in translating our discourse to become intelligible by others in the field, but our outlook is inherently different.

I was thinking after reading several comments above, how the desire for trade in the ancient world, introduced us to its cultural diversity, eventually to become a world network. Yet at the same time, that same network was deployed harmfully, allowing one group to establish dominion over another, profit at the expense of another culture. Never so much was this the case than in the vehicle our shipping network offered to propagate slavery, and he with most control of of the network could do the most harm.

Likewise today's connected world wasn't conceived with harmful intent. Those with such intentions saw the opportunity to exploit and became aware of the how little resistance was offered. Today dominion is achieved by swamping servers, extracting funds by fraud and enslaving those whose bodies are offered as online entertainment. What is could and should be used for it freeing the fettered world from its chains, and empowering diverse communities to flourish by investing in their preservation.

We have I believe, a moral responsibility to oppose this injustice, in just the same way as our reforming predecessors.

Hi Minagirgis:

I have to say right away that I just love the combination ethnomusicologist / hotelier! Bravo!

Cultural Entrepreneurship strikes me as a very important endeavor, and I'm not surprised that it leads you to question some of the values within the social entrepreneurship community - something that in true entrepreneurial spirit we should be doing in any case!

I sympathize with your comment:

QUOTE: Coming from ethnomusicology with all its postmodern tendencies, quantifying the impact of an arts experience/education seemed over-simplistic and at times even misleading. The quantification of social impact may work in some other field within social entrepreneurship, but isn't always helpful for those of us who deal with culture. :UNQUOTE

An authentic, full-bore aha! always strikes me as the most important offering I can make to the people I work for, whether it's editing a book or suggesting an event for the Edge - but how do you quantify something that builds on a lifetime and occurs in a split-second?

The Tibetans know things about disciplined visualization that the European cultures lost sight of shortly after the Renaissance

how do we value that against, say, speed of communication and economy of scale?

Social entrepreneurs are already up against the value of value in an ROI based world - and when you add the values of other cultures into the mix, the balancing act gets very complex indeed.

Keep at it. Maybe one day I can read poetry at your resort...

Hi Lesley, and thanks for your comment here.

If you see this, I'd really appreciate it if you would lay out the nature of "strengths based" vs "problem solving" approaches in a bit more detail, and perhaps give us a specific example of successful integration of Native American and overall US cultures. An approach which shows cultural sensitivity from the outset is certainly something to be welcomed, I'd be very interested to see the process in action.

Thanks again for your contribution here.

I agree with Jeff's insightful post that we have a moral responsibility to oppose injustice. Since you mentioned Tibet Charles, I just wanted to add a few comments. Cultural imperialism is a dangerous thing, as shown in the case of China. It's only been since 1951 that China has claimed Tibet, so what is happening at the moment is an outrage. Mindful of the legacy of its military crackdown on pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen square in 1989, it says its showing restraint. But when the chinese foreign ministry at a news conference asks " Is there any law in the world? Is there any justice in the world?" it becomes evident that not only does china have an eye only on itself, but its sense of self-importance is so over inflated. An example of this is the closing of Everest for the torch. For 2 seconds of t.v coverage an entire Nepal sherpa community loses its annual income, so is the bigger you are, the more say you have, really the world we want?

I like to work with "consciousness forces" and think the bang for the buck of social entrepreneurship is the greatest when we correctly analyze the consciousness forces already at work, and give a well-placed boost to the ones we like. Often the interplay of forces is close to a tipping point, and such support can bring a social milieu to the point of massive change. E.g., I think of the historical relationship in Europe between science on the one hand and religious parochialism on the other hand, and wonder who is looking into the resources devoted to science education in the Arabic-speaking world. I think of the rise of Gorbachev in the USSR and what parallels to his glasnost and perestroika there are in authoritarian states such as Sudan, Belarus, Iran etc. Who is looking at the possibility of deep, long-term, not overtly political support for the forces of open societies? Here is a link to a piece on my web page that might be an example of this kind of thinking. http://www.thesecularspirit.com/text/92sea.html

hi Michael, I have a theory about these "consciousness forces". Given one sees consciousness as the dimension of timelessness in ourselves, not just the awareness of psychic phenomena, living on the planet today are at least 3 ages of consciousness, tribal, self, and soul (global)that are all inter-playing cosmically and culturally. To get to the next evolution of consciousness, we need to successfully integrate all 3. What do you think? Is there a single process at work, or are we in a universe of polarized dualities? I really like your view of secularism as healing the repressed.

I agree with you that "conscience must guide humanity's destiny"

Thanks Jo. In The Secular Spirit I opt for a stage theory combining Robert Bellah and Ken Wilber, That points me towards "advanced existential experience" as the goal of human consciousness, and accepts that there are various social stages at work now, as you suggest. And it makes me think there is a single process at work. But the trick for social entrepreneurship is to identify the small-scale, empirical forms of the forces of consciousness at work today. What activities are fostering/impeding the movement from tribal to self to soul? "Tribal" is so relevant to today, since the best commentators I've seen identify it as the key parameter (not religion as such) in Iraq. In Europe, the rise of the EU is a late stage of rising above tribalism there, and so it is good to look at who and what is driving that movement. Also, the fact that much US social entrepreneurship is coming from the "dot com" business sector is probably not an accident. So, I agree. Stages are in play. There is one process. The devil is in the details.

Hi Michael, it's good to have confirmation, good luck with your spiritual assignment.

Jo and Michael

hi!

I find myself nodding in agreement at your posts, with very little to add, and go away hoping the reverie-mind will offer up some comment, and return to find i still agree, still nod, still have very little to say past what you have already said.

But let me go just a little deeper this time. How do we speak, from outside the tribe, to people of tribal disposition?

I am coming to suspect that honor and shame are the keys here... but that's about as far as I get. Any hints, anyone?

It's not just tribal cultures that have a focus on honor and shame, religions do too. As conflicts, clashes and violence happen in all cultures at all stages of their development, dialogue is essential in building the bridges, or blurring the boundaries between us and them.

Famine and genocide are what really needs to stop in tribalism or tribal consciousness...I agree with Jeff's quote from Terry Hallman in his open paper on poverty eradication that "leaving people in poverty breaks all tenets of civilisation...that they would be forced to defend themselves by whatever means".