Elections of directors 2023

This 2023 will see the third round of open elections of EMES. The composition of the EMES Board of Directors, according to the new bylaws, is as follows:

8 members representing “institutional members” category
5 members representing the “individual members” category
1 PhD representative (non-elected; designated by the PhD network)
1 Former President (non-elected)

The EMES President and other roles (Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer) are chosen by the Board among elected institutional and individual Board’s members.

This will be an important year both from an administrative and strategic standpoint. Firstly, we will be revising the original EMES’ bylaws, which were originally published in 2002, then revised in 2005 and 2015. In addition, we will crystallize the new Strategic Plan, covering 2023-2025. In addition, we will hold our 9th International Research Conference on Social Enterprise in Frankfurt.

The goal of having open elections is to allow members to partake directly in how the network is governed. The need of strengthening the Coordination Unit of EMES in the long term runs in parallel to that of having a vibrant, lively community that is able of preparing and completing groundbreaking research on SE. In this context, responsibilities os Board members include: to develop, coordinate and host research projects and events and possibly to generate funding and resources and to be actively involved in the network’s governance.

Candidates for the 2023 elections

As foreseen in the bylaws, a “Nominating Committee” was created to receive candidacies alongside with a statement from each of the candidates explaining their concrete commitment to the network, if elected. This Committee includes two members form the Board and two external members who are not running for election and is supported by the Coordination Unit. The members of the Nominating Committee for the 2023 elections are Marthe Nyssens and Taco Brandsen representing the current Board and Coline Serres and Benjamin Huybrechts. Interested candidates in representing institutional and individual members submitted their CV and a letter of intention by June 10th.

Elected Institutional member representatives

CES (Belgium) – Frédéric Dufays
CES (Portugal) – Silvia Ferreira (renewal)
CIRTES – Anaïs Perrilleux
CSE (Denmark) – Linda Andersen (renewal)
EURICSE (Italy) – Giulia Galera (renewal)
LEST (France) – Francesca Petrella (renewal)
UCC (Ireland) – Lucas Olmedo
SH (Sweden) – Malin Gawell

Elected Individual member representatives

Nicole Göler von Ravensburg, Germany (renewal)
Danijel Baturina, Croatia
Kai Green, Denmark
Kerryn Krige, United Kingdom
Sergio Páramo Ortiz

Important dates

15/01 – Set up a nominating committee
30/03 – Announce open elections for the Board
10/04-10/06 – Open submission period for candidacies
10/06 – Deadline for candidacies submissions

COMING UP:

01/09 – Set up the voting process in the platform – Members will be able to cast their vote electronically from September 1st until October 1st via a link that will be shared with them via email. Only members whose membership dues are in order will be able to vote.
01/10 – Deadline for voting
November 2023: Meeting of the new Board (with assignment of roles)

Learn about EMES membership and become a member here.

Questions?

Please let us know if you have any questions by writing to us at membership@emes.net

Institutional representatives

CES (Belgium) – Frédéric Dufays

It is my pleasure to apply for a seat at the board of EMES as a representative of the Centre for Social Economy of the University of Liege (Belgium), a founding member of EMES. To me, it is a logical next step in my academic engagement. Indeed, I participated in multiple activities of EMES and, as a young researcher, greatly benefitted from the network and the expertise and benevolence of its members.

For the anecdote, as a PhD candidate, my very first conference was the EMES conference that we were hosting in Liège in 2013. My strongest memory of that conference is that I got invited to join some senior scholars I looked up to for lunch. I had the feeling that I had become part of the community, part of the EMES family. The network has evolved and grown since then and I would like to contribute in its consolidation, also thereby pursuing the long-standing involvement of the University of Liège in EMES.

CES (Portugal) – Silvia Ferreira (renewal)

It is my great honour to renew my application to be institutional board member in
representation of the Center for Social Studies (Centro de Estudos Sociais). CES is the largest social sciences and humanities research center in Portugal, awarded Excellent in the research system, whose mission has strong affinities with that of the EMES Network. Several of its researchers carry on research on social and solidarity economy, social enterprises and the third sector, social policy and welfare and cultural and creative industries in relation to SE.

My first EMES conference was in 2005 and I’ve been involved in it since then. I participated in the EMES conferences with several roles, in the Summer Schools and in the FETSE. I am member of the EMES board since 2015 and I was involved in collective research projects (ICSEM, Mapping). I acted as Chair and Vice-chair of the COST Action EMPOWER-SE.

As a board member I will contribute to the strategic goals of EMES through participating in the development of affinity groups and research projects and being involved in other activities that contribute to the sustainability and reach of EMES mission as necessary. This will include the promotion of the relationship between institutional members and EMES.

CIRTES – Anaïs Perrilleux

I am very pleased to apply for membership of the EMES Board of Directors as a representative of CIRTES, one of the founding members of EMES. I am a professor at UCLouvain and my area of expertise concerns social enterprises, cooperatives and their role in the social and ecological transition. I have known the EMES network for almost 10 years, when I joined CIRTES after a post-doc in the USA and attended the 4th EMES conference in Liège.

Since then, I have attended every EMES conference (and co-organized the one hosted by CIRTES in 2017). I consider the network to play a crucial role in research on social economy, and I am very attached to its warm spirit. As a board member, in terms of teaching, being in charge of our Masters in Social Economy (CIRTES and CES), I would contribute to the development of a network of EMES Master’s programs to enable students to discover the realities of the social economy in other European countries (which is essential today, given the social and ecological challenges that go far beyond national borders). I will also support the EMES summer school to which I have sent my Ph.D. students wherever possible. Concerning research, I would love to develop large-scale projects with EMES colleagues. In 2021, we have already discussed applying to a European call (too complicated due to the covid period). I would be very happy to apply again in the years to come. I will also contribute to broaden the community working on social finance and ecological transition within the EMES network.

CSE (Denmark) - Linda Andersen (renewal)

Center for Social Entrepreneurship (CSE), located at Roskilde University in Denmark, has been an institutional member of EMES for the past 17 years framing PhDs, Early Career Researchers, and Associate and Full Professors. We offer a full 2-year MA in Social Entrepreneurship and Management and a 2-year part-time Master’s Program in Social Sustainability.

The contribution and collaboration with the EMES community have been an invaluable mutual inspiration for our research and teaching. I have been part of the EMES board for the past four years, and I/CSE have enthusiastically contributed to the EMES community by participating in Training Schools, EMES conferences, the Affinity Group on Culture and Arts in SEs, the EMES Book Presentations, and the DIMSE project on Erasmus change programs for MA students. According to this, EMES has initiated several new initiatives that strengthen a more diversified version of the EMES community – and we need to develop this further. Furthermore, we are strengthening the EMES future by more firmly rooting early-career researchers, and we also need to work collaboratively on attracting large EU grants. Finally, we need to develop the EMES governance further and refine this more cooperatively and collectively.

EURICSE (Italy) - Giulia Galera (renewal)

It is an honour for me to apply for a seat at the board of EMES as a representative of Euricse. As a founding member, Euricse has played a role in supporting both the setting up and the further development and enlargement of our Network. Over the years, it has contributed to studying the social enterprise and the broader social economy as a research theme driven by a critique of the market economy.

Euricse will continue to do so by pursuing its active engagement in EMES: together with other EMES members, we will contribute to drafting new project proposals over the next months. Moreover, in 2024, Euricse will organize next EMES Summer School in Trento with a view to encourage the next generations of scholars to fill gaps in social enterprise research and contribute to better understanding how to fully harness the potential of social enterprise to improve wellbeing, tackle social exclusion, fight against environmental degradation, and support the creation of a better world on a wide scale.

LEST (France) - Francesca Petrella (renewal)

It is an honour and a pleasure for me to express my candidacy to be member of the next board, as a member of the LEST, an institutional member ready to continue its involvement in the network. Social enterprises are at the heart of one of the research axes of the LEST dedicated to the analysis of organisational changes in the context of transitions. I am also full professor in economics at Aix-Marseille University (France) and codirector of the Master Degree specialised in the management of social economy organisations.

I have been involved in the network for a long time, having made my PhD with Marthe Nyssens and then being part of the European project on childcare in the early 2000’s. My research interests and my scientific trajectory, therefore, have been, from the beginning of my career, in strong connection with EMES. Being member of the current board as the Secretary, my motivation to be part of the next board is to ensure some continuity of the project and to consolidate the network that has steadily grown in the last decade. But I would also take part in the development of new research projects and activities. In particular, I have been active in the DIMSE-EMSE project aimed at developing exchanges between masters’ students among universities from the network. I am convinced that EMES could increase the collaboration between universities by strengthening its educational mission towards master students (who may become future PhD’s students). Finally, I am well aware that the next board will have to face several challenges, among which the one to consolidate the economic model of EMES, which will require a real collective governance and a strong involvement from the side of board members.

UCC (Ireland) – Lucas Olmedo

I am Lucas Olmedo, postdoctoral researcher at University College Cork (Ireland). My expertise lies at the intersection of social enterprises, social innovation and rural development. I have actively contributed to embed a rural perspective within EMES by co-organising dedicated panels in the conferences of Sheffield (2019), Teruel (2021) and Frankfurt (2023) and recently collaborating with EMES colleagues in a Horizon Europe proposal about the restoration of rural areas in Europe. It is my intention to continue contributing to EMES events and co-developing research opportunities that align with EMES scientific aims and funding needs.

Besides being an active member of the PhD community, I am currently involved in (co)developing an EMES Early-Career Research community. My ambition is that this nascent community is formally established and topics such as ECRs cooperative work/research; career transition, alternatives paths to academia; mentorship and peer-support in research, mental health and wellbeing are further developed.

I have found in EMES a research community providing great support and inspiration, hence, my willingness to contribute to it in these exciting times for the SSE. I believe my research-professional skills, track-record and passion prepare me well to make a substantial contribution to the EMES board. I have full endorsement from my colleague, EMES director (outgoing) and founding member Dr. Mary O’Shaughnessy.

SH (Sweden) - Malin Gawell

Malin Gawell is Associate Professor in Business Administration at Södertörn University in Stockholm, Sweden. She is Director of REINVENT – centre for multi-disciplinary research on city dynamics and member of ENTER forum (a centre with focus on entrepreneurship research). She is furthermore Guest Professor in sociology at Warsaw University. She teaches social entrepreneurship, social enterprises, social innovation, social economy and civil society primarily at advanced level. She is highly involved in Södertörn University’s multi-disciplinary research education and research education more generally through national and international networks. Transdisciplinary collaboration is characterizing much of Malin’s engagement.

Södertörn University was founding partner of EMES. Malin has been actively involved since 2009 and thereby seen the important steps taken through different projects such as ICSEM, EU mapping, COST (in which Malin has been Swedish partner), and the anthology of Nordic Perspectives on Social entrepreneurship and Social Enterprises (Routlege 2017) as well as the growth and democratization of the network governance. I am now, as representative for Södertörn University as Institutional member, happy to take on the task to serve on the EMES board – to contribute to coming steps with the aim to strengthen a continued vivid academic dialogue on crucial aspects of our society.

Individual representatives

Nicole Göler von Ravensburg, Germany (renewal)

Having served EMES as a Board member representing personal members since June 2015, with once re-elected in 2019, I hereby confirm that I’d be available for one more term from 2023 to 2027, in order to introduce a new treasurer into the task.

Danijel Baturina, Croatia

As an assistant professor at the Faculty of Law in Zagreb, my professional endeavours have centred around social enterprise research and teaching. I have also been actively engaged with practice, in initiatives dedicated to making a social impact. Throughout my professional journey, EMES was instrumental in my personal and professional growth and serves as an intellectual home to me. I have “grown” together with EMES, starting from the early stages of my career and collaboration with EMES in EU research projects, COST Action EMPOWER SE (in which I co-lead one WG), as well as involvement in several EMES International PhD Summer Schools, EMES conferences and other events.

Driven by my deep-rooted commitment to the EMES community, I am eager to make a further contribution by seeking election to the board. If granted this opportunity, my principal objective would be to empower more researchers from Central and Eastern Europe, as well as young scholars, to actively engage with EMES. In addition, I will work on actively promoting EMES as a significant stakeholder in debates concerning social enterprise development and policies. Thirdly, I am devoted to mobilizing the intellectual resources of EMES to foster new collaborative research projects among its members.

Kai Green, Denmark

My name is Kai, I am a post-doc at Aarhus University, and I want to support EMES’s transformation into a vibrant centre for academics and practitioners. I’ve worked in the oil industry, in children’s theatre, and now as an SE academic… so I try to offer a “bit of everything” to fellow Early Career Researchers who seek to express their work to different audiences!

As a researcher, I have published on SE from the perspectives on gender, political economy, creative arts and monetary sociology, in journals from our field and beyond. As an organizer, I have been incredibly lucky to part of the three-headed beast of the PhD Representatives, working together to deliver webinars, socials and panels to our junior researchers. As a co-convenor of the Culture and Arts group, I try to strengthen the artistic outreach of EMES. And now, I seek a role on the board to champion the voices of our Early Career Researchers – those navigating outer systemic pressures and inner imposter syndrome.

Whether we do SE research, teaching, public policy work, or community building, I believe that we are cutting edge of understanding how the academic sector is fundamentally changing. I look forward to helping make the transition more diverse, dynamic and joyful!

Kerryn Krige, United Kingdom

I believe I bring a mix of skills that would be useful to the EMES board as it plans the next 20 years.

Looking ahead, I see policy developments becoming more prominent, a bridging of social entrepreneurship and the social and solidarity economy schools of thought, a need to expand support from Masters to Early Career Researchers (ECRs) as well as those who like me, bridge academia and practice. This requires ongoing research, curating conversations, and collaboration.

What skills do I bring to help EMES navigate this future?

I bring SSE policy experience in South Africa and with the African Union. I have established and grown networks, having co-founded the African Network of Social Entrepreneurship Scholars, which now has 230+ members. And in developing ideas, I am co-ordinating delivering the ICSEM Project across the African continent. I am proud of the work the PhD team has done to support our community and establish a voice for ECRs.

What do I stand for? My vision is that EMES continues to build its global research efforts. I am committed to developing the role of Early Career Researchers within EMES, recognising the difficulties of scholars transitioning into academic and practice-led career paths. And to continue to grow the EMES network, building our diversity of scholars and scholarship by strengthening our African membership.

I believe I can contribute to building the diversity and inclusivity of the EMES network, grow our support to students and scholars and continue to expand our research excellence. I value deeply, the support I have received from EMES personally and professionally, but also how it embodies the values it stands for: collaboration, co-operation, inclusivity and diversity of people and ideas. It would be an honour to be considered for nomination, and to contribute to EMES’ work and growth.

Sergio Páramo Ortiz

Sergio is a lecturer in Social Entrepreneurship at Maastricht University, his research specialises in the transformative potential of social enterprises and social innovation. With a PhD from the University of York UK, his research focused on understanding social enterprises in different contexts and analysing their perspectives through a decolonial lens in Latina America and Europe.

His research formed part of the Mexican chapter of the International Comparative Social Enterprise Models Project, coordinated by EMES where I am an active member. From 2020-21 Sergio was appointed PhD representative at the board of the EMES PhD Network.

At Maastricht University, he coordinates the course Diversity in Entrepreneurship and teaches the courses Social and Sustainable Entrepreneurship, and Business Innovation and Sustainable Development at master and undergraduate levels. He holds an MSc in Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, as well as a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration