Opportunities, challenges, and power of media and information
Social enterprise slides2
1. Refusing the Market II:
From Marketization to
Democratic Discourse & Beyond?
Angela M. Eikenberry
School of Public Administration
University of Nebraska at Omaha
2. “Doing something wonderful never tasted so good!”
– Sweet Charity Cupcakes
Sprinkles’ Cupcakes for Charity
3. Impact of Marketization on
Nonprofit/Voluntary Orgs
1. Need for nonprofits (and consumption) to “replace”
government in the provision of public goods.
2. Pressures on nonprofits to take on market-like
approaches to gain funding.
3. Pervasive normative ideology surrounding market-
based solutions and business-like models.
4. Nonprofit and voluntary orgs increasingly look to
market-like strategies to operate.
• Commercial activities
• Social enterprise
• Cause-related marketing
4. Problems with Marketization
• The ideology of the market is essentially anti-
social, based on self-interest rather than disinterest
or the public good (Anderson, 1990; Hjorth,
2009).
• The market erodes all social ties other than purely
economic ones and/or converts social relationships
into instrumental ones (Bull et al., 2010).
• Marketization de-politicizes the public realm
through economic and managerial discourses
(Clarke, 2004; Curtis, 2008; Nickel, 2012; Dey &
Steyeart, 2012).
5. Problems with Marketization for
Nonprofit/Voluntary Orgs
Compromise diversity and pluralism perceived as making
valuable contributions to society and democracy.
6. Problems with Marketization for
Nonprofit/Voluntary Orgs
Social enterprise:
•Emphasize individual over collective—”messiah-like” figure
of the social enterpreneur (Dey & Steyeart, 2010).
•Introduces a de-politicized image of social change (Curtis,
2008; Dey & Steyeart, 2010; Grenier, 2009; Nicholls, 2010).
•Focus on symptoms rather than root causes (Edwards, 2008)
7. Problems with Marketization for
Nonprofit/Voluntary Orgs
Cause-Related Marketing:
•Opportunity costs
•Consumers have little incentive to
understand impetus for the problem
being addressed through consumption.
•Lulls people into a false sense of doing
good, even as they are potentially doing
more harm.
•Individualizes solutions to collective
problems.
•Makes virtuous action easy,
thoughtless & self-satisfying.
8. If you just kind of go around and do “woah is me”
and kind of do a pity party for all of the…I mean,
there are many horrible things happening…this
can be a bright spot for people. And my five
dollar bracelet I got… hey, I like it! And you
know that it went to help somebody as well as I
get a pretty bracelet out of the deal.
(Interviewee #1, June 25, 2010)
9. Create Space for Democratic Discourse
• Consider democratic values in strategy and
operations.
• Cultivate more meaningful philanthropic
relationships with individuals.
• Promote alternative discourses for/with funders
and volunteers.
• Talk more about democracy and the public
sphere in classrooms.
10. Is Democratizing NPs & SEs Enough?
Country Giving as
% of GDP
Gov Social
Expend
% of GDP
Gini
Index
% Children w/
Income
< 50% of Median
Infant
Mortality
United States 1.85 19.2 .38 20.6 6.8
Canada 1.17 19.2 .32 15.1 5.3
United
Kingdom
0.84 24.1 .34 10.1 5.1
Australia 0.51 17.8 .34 11.8 5.0
Netherlands 0.49 23.2 .29 11.5 4.9
France 0.32 32.1 .29 7.6 3.6
Germany 0.13 27.8 .30 16.3 3.9
Editor's Notes
Other interviewees brought up how easy and fun these events are—for the organizers and the customers—and thus, their appeal. For the charity organizers, they can contract with a company to do most of the work, or at least put in the capital and assume all of the risk as one interviewee noted, so it is relatively easy. The events can also be a fun way for organizers to contribute time to the campaign as noted by one interviewee (#1). For the jewelry sale, several staff from Human Resources, including the HR director, and students volunteered. Underlying these reasons for doing CRM as part of the campaign seemed to be the notions that no one has to make an “ask” in this type of fundraising and people who participate are gaining something out of the transaction—there are doing more than just giving.
