Societal Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Asian Rural Societies: A Multi-Sectoral Social Capital Approach in Thailand, Taiwan and Japan

Sustainability

Mei-Fei Lu¹  I-Chen Lin²  Ken Aoo³  Istvan Rado⁴ 

[1] College of English and International Studies, Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan;College of Management, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung 804, Taiwan;Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in Health Systems, Okayama University, Okayama 700-8530, Japan;School of Global Studies, Thammasat University, Pathumthani 12121, Thailand;

关键词: cooperative;    societal entrepreneurship;    social capital;    aging;    environmental degradation;    multi-sectoral collaboration;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su13052747

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The agricultural sector in Thailand, Taiwan, and Japan is facing a number of interrelated crises, including aging producers, falling market prices, changing consumer preferences, and biodiversity degradation. Small-scale farmers in these three societies have engaged in diverse collaborative initiatives with actors from the public, private, and third sectors to overcome these challenges. We illustrate these initiatives by combining the concept of societal entrepreneurship (Berglund et al. 2012) with a complex understanding of social capital (see Brunie 2009). Given that these initiatives are formed in distinct ways across these societies, the paper aims to answer the following research questions: What is the nature of the relationships (expressed as types of social capital) underlying the processes of societal entrepreneurship? How does social capital contribute to sustainable community development? How does it facilitate the scaling up of solutions through multi-sectoral collaboration? Using a case study approach, we aim to explore multi-sector initiatives in each context in depth, before identifying common patterns and key drivers for collaboration through thematic analysis. We have found that distinct drivers are involved in each context due to different types of social capital, including solutions, advocacy, and reconciliation.

【 授权许可】

Unknown