Toward a Collective Approach to Social Innovation: The Case of Social Entrepreneurship in Tunisia

Abstract

This article aims to understand the extent to which social entrepreneurship contributes to the construction of a collective dimension linked to social innovation. Since 2013, this work has been based on a participant observation of eight major events dedicated to social entrepreneurship or the Shared Economy. In-depth interviews with Tunisian social entrepreneurs were also conducted in order to enrich our corpus. The results show the necessary cooperation of social entrepreneurs for a sustainable and responsible social innovation. Indeed, the analysis emphasizes that the viability and sustainability of a social innovation is based essentially on a collective construction, beyond common social values.