Project description
How to scale dynamics of community enterprises
Local community enterprises (CEs) possess the potential to enhance societal sustainability by promoting collective action, including addressing challenges like climate change. However, there remains uncertainty regarding how these enterprises can expand their influence and drive societal transformation beyond the confines of markets and states. In this context, the ERC-funded SCENSUS project aims to identify and comprehend the mechanisms that facilitate CEs in scaling their societal impacts. To achieve this goal, the project will introduce a new interdisciplinary theory of CE dynamics within the broader political economy context. By concentrating on collective action, the research aims to challenge conventional thinking about the exclusive responsibility of markets and states in constructing institutions and organisations.
Objective
How can community enterprises scale their impact and reshape society beyond markets and states? This is an important and timely challenge in realising societal transformations for sustainability, as scholars and policymakers have recently placed high expectations on the transformative potential of communities. While community enterprises are widely known to foster collective action locally, the mechanisms through which they can achieve wider transformations to tackle urgent sustainability challenges such as climate change are poorly understood.
SCENSUS aims to identify and understand the mechanisms by which community enterprises can scale their societal impacts. It will analyse initiatives in three key fields (energy, carsharing, repair) in Germany, France, the UK and the Netherlands, to: 1) Develop a unified theory that explains the factors behind the scaling of community enterprises; 2) Analyse the institutional complexity arising as community enterprises scale and the collective mechanisms to manage them; 3) Identify and analyse community enterprises’ strategies to mobilise critical resources and build legitimacy for scaling; 4) Understand the roles of social networks in community enterprises’ scaling dynamics.
This research will 1) advance collective action theory with key insights from social network theory and organisational institutionalism, 2) create a novel approach to scaling, beyond business growth in single organisations and market diffusion, 3) connect different levels of analysis, from community enterprises’ internal functioning to their aggregate development, 4) develop and test an innovative multi-method research design combining large-N statistical analysis, surveys and comparative case studies, to capture dynamic scaling processes. By creating a new interdisciplinary theory of the dynamics of community enterprises within wider social systems, SCENSUS will advance the research frontier on collective action and organisation studies
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2022-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
3062 PA Rotterdam
Netherlands
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.