Research

AISE defines research as systematic enquiry made public. The public nature of research emphasises the democratic and participatory nature of our approach to the creation and dissemination of knowledge.

We support ‘really useful’ research that directly changes practice through doing enquiry and research that is conducted largely with or by participants themselves. We support enquiry based on reflection on and through practice in natural settings.

Hence, we have a particular interest in research for and by social entrepreneur practitioners. These include skills in interpreting relevant social and financial data, critical action research, case study method, self-evaluation, assessing the financial capacity and future of an enterprise, determining the life-phase of the enterprise, and many other examples of ‘applied’ research.

We also conduct research that focuses on policy practice, such as social and public policy, social surveys, census surveys, and studies on the nature of social enterprise ( socioprenology ).

Our research agenda focuses particularly on the development of social enterprise in Australasia (in some projects with nationally recognized education institutions and international partners) and aims in the first instance to:

• ‘Map’ the nature and extent of social enterprise initiatives.
• Develop new "tools" and methodologies for a new integrated approach to social enterpise design.
• Design and pilot new social enterprise start-ups.
• Measure the impact of social enterprises and hence planning of future enterprises.
• Understand and critically scrutinize the nature of social enterprise through practitioner-based cases studies the establishment of case records, case studies and case surveys.
• Establish an education and training agenda for social entrepreneurship based on rigorously produced research knowledge.

As our membership statement indicates we are particularly interested in doing research in collaboration with participating individuals or groups who wish to work as Research Fellows and Associates.

Go to the sections on "Recent Reseaerch" and "Research Publications" for recent material on our research.

» More about our technology application for communities