Social Entrepreneurship is a buzz word. In Daniela Papi-Thornton’s talk, she explores how the concept has narrowed down over time and is often used simply to refer to social businesses. But, as she explains, “we don’t need more social businesses, we need more social change” and that requires more than just starting new businesses. It requires system change leadership. Daniela explores the difference between being a social business founder and a system change leader and then unpicks how we talk about, fund, and educate for social entrepreneurship, as well as what needs to change in our education and funding systems to fuel more system change leaders. Her talk is useful for anyone who is interested in social change, for educators looking to teach the next generation of system change leaders, and anyone who has heard the term social entrepreneurship but wants to know what it’s really all about.
Daniela Papi-Thornton has a unique perspective on social entrepreneurship, developed as result of six years working for social change in Cambodia and her role as an educator at Oxford’s Saïd Business School. When focused on the role of the social entrepreneur as a “hero,” volunteer travel and social change education can have negative impacts on future social change leaders. Instead, she offers tools and perspectives that will help educators, parents, and budding change makers reposition themselves and rethink how we teach, fund, and incentivize social entrepreneurs. Addressing “heropreneurship” can help us better equip the social change leaders of the future to tackle our global and local challenges. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
