Tag: Social Entrepreneurship

Education

Brij Kothari - Literacy Through Entertainment

What do you get when you combine a love of Bollywood music videos with widespread illiteracy? Brij Kothari sees an opportunity to make the world a better place. By subtitling popular entertainment, he helps millions learn to read in a fun way. He's also creating multiplatform stories that will be seen on TV, read on mobile phones, and printed in books. Talking to Design for Change host Sheela Sethuraman in this audio interview, Kothari describes how he improves lives by incorporating education into everyday entertainment.

Health

Joshua Silver - Bringing Vision to the Masses

In the United States, at least 60% of the population wears corrective lenses. Worldwide, in contrast, only 5% of the population does. Such statistics have led Josh Silver, Oxford atomic physicist, to conclude that more than half the world needs vision correction but doesn't have access to it. In this audio lecture, host of the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford, Silver shares how he decided to "do something useful for the world" by creating specialized, liquid-filled corrective lenses that are now worn by some 26,000 people in developing countries.

Civic Engagement

Pamela Hartigan - The Power of Unreasonable People

Why are social entrepreneurs sometimes considered "unreasonable," and how are they different from business entrepreneurs? In this audio interview, author Pamela Hartigan discusses with Design for Change host Sheela Sethuraman how these pesky pioneers are creating markets that are changing the world. She also talks about Volans Ventures, her new enterprise dedicated to integrating the worlds of social and environmental innovation with business-driven wealth creation.

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Social Entrepreneurship

Cultivate Your Ecosystem

By Paul N. Bloom & J. Gregory Dees 1

Social entrepreneurs not only must understand the broad environment in which they work, but also must shape those environments to support their goals, when feasible. Borrowing insights from the field of ecology, the authors offer an ecosystems framework to help social entrepreneurs create long-lasting and significant social change.

Leadership

Charles Handy - The New Philanthropists

In Britain, something is happening that hasn't for 100 years. More people are becoming incredibly wealthy, not only through inheritance, but also because of their own hard work. A phenomenon on this scale has not happened since the Victorian industrialists. In this audio lecture, Philosopher Charles Handy tells his 2007 Skoll World Forum audience about entrepreneurs who put their energies into meeting some perceived social need—something that government never gets around to and that private enterprise typically doesn't see a market for.