Social Entrepreneurship at SCE

Social Entrepreneurship has now become established at the University. Both entrepreneurship and innovation have become recognised as important factors in social and economic progress. The basic principles of entrepreneurship can be used to solve social, ecological, economic and cultural problems. The approach of using entrepreneurial business strategies to tackle social challenges in the long term is summed up by the term “Social Entrepreneurship“. SCE regards itself as a driving force in teaching and research within this field.

Examplary activities at SCE include the following:

Lecture Series with Champions of Social Development

The public lecture series on social innovation proved to be very popular both within the University and further afield. The aim was to highlight enterprises which sought to have, or indeed were already having, a beneficial effect on society. Many exciting speakers provided valuable insights into their personal experience and projects, including Athanasios Moulakis from the American University of Afghanistan, Hans-Peter Dürr, winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize, Karl Ludwig Schweisfurth, the Bio Entrepreneur, Götz W. Werner, founder, co-owner and member of the advisory board of dm-drogerie markt, Günter Faltin, economist and entrepreneur as well as Ludger Hovestadt, Professor for Architectural Design, ETH Zürich.

Practical seminar “Social Entrepreneurship“

“Management of Social Innovations“, a practical seminar within the Social Entrepreneurship programme, has become established as a successful model within the Bachelor degree course. Students spend one semester converting project-specific ideas into feasible business proposals for various different project organisers.

Workshop Social Innovation Day

The Social Innovation Day generated particularly lively interest. As two extremely passionate proponents, Daniel Häni and Franz Galler presented their ideas of “An Unconditional Basic Income“ and “Alternative Currency“ to a large audience. Afterwards the whole audience had the opportunity to participate in debating the ideas round the conference table in the World Cafe.