Social Enterprise and Business Ethics

Social Enterprise and Business Ethics - Highlights, Janvier 2023

ICA CCR Global and European Cooperative Research Conference

From July 10 to 13, 2023, Frédéric Dufays will chair the flagship conference in cooperative research. This year, the Global and European Committees for Cooperative Research of the International Cooperative Alliance are joining forces and organize the conference at KU Leuven, with HEC Liège as a co-host.

More information via this link

Social Economy in Wallonia: No exception to the gender division of labor and power relationships

From February to September 2022, Elodie Dessy conducted a study in the framework of the project “Women in Social Economy and Social Entrepreneurship” led by Credal (Agence conseil en Economie sociale) and funded by the Walloon Region. The goal of the study was to question the ambivalent relationship of social economy with gender equality. Given its values of social justice and democracy and its predominantly feminine workforce, social economy is often regarded as an inclusive economy, promoting women empowerment. Yet a closer look at social economy organizations reveals that they are no exception to the gender division of labor and power relationships. Social economy is vertically and horizontally segregated: women are mostly employed in the care sectors and not equally represented in leadership positions. The study found that while social enterprises do not ignore gender stereotypes and discriminations, they tend to feel powerless when it comes to challenging their own professional practices. Based on this observation, the study ends with practical recommendations to build social enterprises’ capacities and adopt a gender mainstreaming strategy in social economy in Wallonia.

The report (in French) can be found here.

Slow down or perish? A conference of the Prosperity and Post-growth Chair

Will we have to choose between "slow down or perish" to respond to the crises facing our contemporary societies? It is with this provocative question that Timothée Parrique, doctor in ecological economics and researcher at the University of Lund (Sweden), came to HEC Liège to introduce us to the subjects of degrowth and post-growth on 13 December, invited by the Prosperity and Post-growth Chair. A theme that aroused a lot of interest: the 500 seats in the audience were sold out in just two weeks! A success that shows the interest of the university community and the key role of our university in exploring innovative solutions to contemporary socio-economic challenges. During the evening, Timothée Parrique presented the impasse of green growth and the social and political limits of growth, opening thereby new research horizons.

The video of the conference is available here (in French)

Development of a tool facilitating SDG reporting for SMEs

With the support of the Eugénie-Piedboeuf Chair in Corporate extra-financial performance and in close collaboration with escap members, the general methodology of the sustainability management tool aimed at facilitating SDGs reporting of engaged SMEs was theoretically challenged by a dozen of social enterprises through one-on-one interviews and several focus groups. This resulted in a fined-tuned methodology which is now up and ready for the digitalisation stage. Once digitalized, the tool will be implemented in real conditions among several social enterprises involved in the circular economy subfield before entering a larger dissemination phase around October 2023. 

For more information, please consult escap.be or contact Simon Meert - simon.meert@uliege.be

ULiège’s Chair in Social Economy inspires the creation of three new “ChairES”

Based on the virtuous dynamics of the escap project, the results of the ULiège’s Chair in Social Economy for more than 10 years and the international reputation of the Centre for Social Economy of HEC Liège created in 1992, three new chairs specialised in social economy – so-called ChairES - have been launched at the beginning of the 2022-23 academic year at UCLouvain, UMONS and ULB. The Centre for Social Economy is coordinating this project, made possible by the support of the Walloon Region.

Each of the 4 chairES is called upon to develop within its host university by adopting a shared philosophy of action based on the escap model, demonstrating its concrete involvement in the project to deploy the social economy. In addition to their research and teaching activities, the chairES are responsible for the creation and development of an inter-university certificate for social economy practitioners, as well as the granting of two doctoral scholarships.