Social Entrepreneurship in Selected Areas the “AITHIKOS” Project in Greece

Abstract

Social economy can play an important role in the development of social innovation in many policy areas, such as addressing the unemployment and the environmental protection, while it can combine profitability through solidarity and new job creation. European Commission places particular emphasis on the Social Economy sector during the current programing period (2014-2020). Main related policies focus to the promotion of the local and common interest, creation of new jobs, the enhancement of social cohesion and local and regional development by showing a particular emphasis on young unemployed people of mountainous areas. The paper presents a proposed supporting mechanism, under the name “AITHIKOS” for social entrepreneurship in mountainous areas of Greece. The project involves the development and implementation of a participatory methodology that requires the involvement of the beneficiary populations and the potential users of the infrastructure and services that the project will provide. The bottom-up approach nature of the proposed mechanism will allow identifying the emerging tangible and intangible needs of the target group, developing appropriate recommendations and solutions.

Keywords: Social Entrepreneur

Australian Academy of Accounting and Finance Review, vol 3, issue 1, January 2017, pp 28-36