The Social Enterprise and The Circular Economy

6 thoughts on “The Social Enterprise and The Circular Economy”

  1. Hi Luis, very nice and thoughtful post. Great.
    One little comment, though.
    Nature “always knows what’s best for her and those around her”: it is true. But it applies some rules:

    1. there is no pity for the weak.
    2. it thinks “long term”

    As to #1, I think that humans have (or should have?) some compassion for their brothers and sisters. Medicine is a proof of this “care” we have for our own race.

    As to #2, the current “short term” thinking unfortunately rules. What is important today is what I can gain NOW, because it is NOW that I prosper; we really do not think that others will be after us to clean the dust. And if we think to this, we apply #1, thinking that the strongest will be able to clean that dust.

    Humans in the old times though they were driven by what the nature itself was doing: illnesses, disasters, drought… Nature was divine.
    Then we started to learn that, up to a certain level, we could modify what was happening to us: technology, medicine etc…. Human intelligence and Technology were divine.
    Now we are thinking that THE MARKET is superior and knows what to do and does it for the good of all of us…. Market is divine.

    BUT
    1. Who could really think that the debt of our western societies could ever be reimbursed?
    2. Who could really think that prosperity can be created by betting on bets that are themselves made on other bets ?

    What you say is true. And it has the merit of proposing a path for starting a change. Making this world more concentrated on people and making people the actors of the change.

    I recently wrote a post that probably goes close to this direction : http://tech.poglianis.net/2011/09/05/can-a-social-business-address-some-shortcomings-from-the-first-web-era/

  2. Hi Luis, on the same line, have you read a M. Porter/M Kramer article on the Jan-Feb 2011 issue of HBR? “Creating Shared Value” has much in common with this whole social businesses/social enterprises thing. Also Don Tapscott’s “Macrowikinomics”. An era of social capitalism? I wouldn’t dare say so, so far, but things are converging: less natural resources, sustainability, financial crisis, social networking crashing tyrannies…

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