Social enterprise and its relationships to the territory: The contribution of humanist geography to the Actor-Network Theory.

Year: 2020
Published in: Annales de Géographie
Cited as: Glémain, P. (2020). “Social enterprise and its relationships to the territory: The contribution of humanist geography to the Actor-Network Theory.” Annales de géographie 731(1): 62-82.

The social and solidarity economy-based enterprises or “social enterprises” are considered to be “anchored to their territory”. But what does it mean? Are social enterprises organizations which aim to support and build local territory? Or do they take advantage of that relationship to ensure their own future? In order to clarify the question, the Authors consider it a good strategy for analysis to combine the Actor-Network Theory with the humanistic geography approach. In that way, a study of two cases of social enterprises localized in rural areas showed that Actor-Network Theory and Humanist Theory are not as idealistic as can be found in some research papers. Together, they help improve understanding of the strategic fundamentals and future situations of social enterprises in the face of a movement towards an international model of social entrepreneurship operating under “social impact” criteria. The former social enterprises are distinct from the latte in not wanting to adopt that model, because, they are locally anchored in support of an inclusive, long-term territorial project.