Up for grabs: A critical discourse analysis of social entrepreneurship discourse in the United Kingdom
Abstract
Purpose
Current social entrepreneurship (SE) literature advocates a critical reexamination of the core construct. As such, and based on the seemingly endless definitional debate among academics, this paper seeks to empirically analyse social entrepreneurship discourse in the United Kingdom. It aims to posit that this debate is in fact detrimental to a more coherent and evenly distributed discourse. Furthermore, the ensuing ambiguities suit other, more powerful participants, and keeping this debate live allows the discourse to be shaped.
Design/methodology/approach
The author utilised critical discourse analysis (CDA) in this study, developing a personal qualitative data set (including a third sector and SE corpora containing SE policies covering 2002‐2008). This data set was then subjected to an online analysis tool WMatrix, and both sets were compared with a widely used base line corpus.
Findings
The findings show that SE discourse is now firmly attached to public policy discourse. Furthermore, this public policy concerning SE was heavily imbued with political language and ideology. Thus, the findings show empirically that SE is characterised in broader public policy debates as a politically re‐constructed concept.
Research limitations/implications
SE will continue to be a contested concept in the public sphere, however further research should explore the potential of dissensus from political reconstructions as a powerful counter‐discourse.
Originality/value
This study is among the first to utilise CDA to interrogate SE discourse, and the analysis provides novel insights for academics and practitioners to reinterpret and contest SE as more than the solution for failing public services.
Keywords
Citation
Mason, C. (2012), "Up for grabs: A critical discourse analysis of social entrepreneurship discourse in the United Kingdom", Social Enterprise Journal, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 123-140. https://doi.org/10.1108/17508611211252846
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited