From Research to Practice and Back
One of the innovative elements of this year’s EMES conference will be the Transdisciplinary Forum. Entitled “Social enterprise for sustainable societies. From research to practice and back.” and to take place on 3 July, the Forum we will facilitate dialogue and exchange between academic community and practitioners. This is the third edition of this Forum, which was launched in Liege in 2013 and held again in Helsinki in 2015.
In the previous hours before its official opening, the Conference will host this unique event—the Transdisciplinary Forum—with several sessions addressing important themes related to the social and solidarity economy and social enterprises. This Forum is for you, speakers and participants coming from non-profit organisations, cooperatives, umbrella organisations, public and private sectors, and training and education centers. Everyone is invited to share their reflective experiences and discuss challenges on multi-sectoral collaboration.
Additional opportunities to learn, network and discuss
The sessions will cover a wide range of topics such as public recognition of social enterprises; social innovation and care; social finance; cooperation and development; renewable energy citizen cooperatives; and the digital economy and the social economy. Local actors and projects will be featured in these sessions which are likely to attract over 100 people to the Forum:
[FR] Chaire d’économie sociale et solidaire au Sud : Un dialogue chercheurs – acteurs
[EN] Cooperative energy: Toward consumer engagement in the energy transition?
WISDOM : Le domicile des personnes âgées: un espace propice à l’innovation sociale ?
[FR&EN] Quand la finance est-elle sociale ? / When is social finance social?
[FR] Quelle mobilisation des acteurs et des chercheurs pour favoriser le développement de l’économie sociale ? Le cas de l’avènement de l’économie numérique dans le secteur des services
[EN] The future of renewable energy cooperatives in the European energy governance
[FR&EN] WISDOM : Quels modèles d’organisation pour l’innovation sociale ? Le défi de la viabilité socio-économique et du bien-être au travail / Innovating care services: the challenges of socioeconomic viability and well-being at work
[FR] Les labels en finance sociale : opportunité ou menace ?
Other sessions to be held during the Forum include:
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Exchanges on researching and practising social enterprise: A dialogue about possible common horizons
According to the moderator, Jennifer Eschweiler:
This session constitutes a first time gathering of the main EU-level representatives of social enterprise umbrella organizations to discuss the value of research within their organizations and exchange their ideas on how the impact of research can be enhanced.
The format of the session will be a fish bowl presentation of all the organizations, followed by a plenary discussion with participation of the audience.
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Forum on Education and Training on Social Enterprise (FETSE)
This is an exciting initiative spearheaded by EMES network since July 2011, intended to foster the development of high-quality and accessible (inter-) university educational programmes in the field of social enterprise / social entrepreneurship. The session will host some members of FETSE Advisory Board, Sílvia Ferreira and Lars Hulgård, as well as representatives from external experts, policy makers, students, and practitioners to review the progress of this initiative over the 5 years of its existence, and share their ideas on how to move forward.
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EMES PhD network on the Transdisciplinary Forum
It is not surprising that the PhD students and researchers are close to EMES’ heart. We are convinced that besides interacting with their peers from other universities, they will benefit by being exposed to a broader group of stakeholders. Therefore we are delighted to provide with the space at this Forum—the session to be specifically organized, designed and led by them. We expect this to be a perfect arena for the stakeholders from all walks of life to meet with PhD students on social and solidarity economy and social enterprises, learn about their experiences in conducting research, and explore together how their research can be useful for “practice”.
Introducing local social economy initiatives
The Transdisciplinary Forum aims to bring this debate closer to hosting country and its social enterprise community. Therefore we plan to use the Forum as a platform to showcase some exciting and remarkable projects and local initiatives stemming from social economy in Belgium. The representatives of Belgian social economy organizations, universities and other stakeholders will present experiences of their work and projects linking research and practice. Out of the 11 sessions planned for the Forum, five will be conducted in English and six in French, although translation into English will be offered for two of them.
Join us for fascinating discussions!
We encourage all of you to join us at the Transdisciplinary Forum on 3 July. As you see, the event will be a unique opportunity to participate in fascinating discussions among academics and practitioners, covering various disciplines related to the field of social and solidarity economy and social enterprises. In addition, registered participants of the conference have free access to the Forum.
The program of the Transdisciplinary Forum is available in French and English in this page.
To register for the Forum, please visit the registration page in English or French.
