Beyond Nongovernmental Development Action into Social Entrepreneurship

This article presents a reflective perspective on the scope that social entrepreneurship offers to non-governmental development work in the Indian context. Beginning with the early corporate efforts to do good to society, the article outlines the history of nongovernmental action through its charity, community welfare, developmental and mobilisational and ‘post-developmentalist neo-liberal political economy’ phases. It then reviews the concept of social entrepreneurship as it has developed in Western liberal democracies where a rethinking of the welfare state has taken place. While the ideology of social entrepreneurship seems to reside naturally in the current phase, only some of its aspects seem to offer growth trajectories for non-governmental work in the near future. Though the foundations and trusts that the early business entrepreneurs established did provide the initial stratum for future non-governmental work, in recent times the charitable-philanthropic orientation of business has evolved into a socially entrepreneurial form, often involving partnerships with the third sector. For the mix of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), especially those which have political goals like empowerment and social justice, social entrepreneurship, in its strict form, seems to have little to offer. But key features of the social entrepreneurial process, namely socially entrepreneurial behaviour, and more importantly social innovation—new ways of solving social problems, resourcefulness, larger scale and wider impact and solutions that are transferable, scalable and cost-effective—are important future directions for all kinds of NGOs, including those whose primary thrust is empowerment and social justice. However, non-governmental organisations need to reaffirm the primacy of the civic in their purpose constantly—aware and positively critical of the ideological undercurrents that influence and shape their responses.