MariaPantea, PhD is a Member of the Pool of European Youth Researchers and a lecturer at BBU, Romania. She has authored over 60 academic publications and policy reports on social inclusion, non-formal education and youth entrepreneurship. In 2014, she co-edited Young people, entrepreneurship and non-formal learning. A work in progress. Brussels: SALTO Participation. Maria-Carmen worked as a consultant for the EU-CoE Youth Partnership, EACEA, CoE, UNIFEM, European Youth Foundation, European Youth Forum, among others. She holds an MA with Merit in Gender Studies (CEU) and a MSc in Evidence-Based Social Interventions (Oxford). More information can be found here: www.policy.hu/pantea
Youth work and social entrepreneurship; value dilemmas and unsolved tensions
The presentation will explore the main commonalities and dilemmas that arise at the intersection of youth work and social entrepreneurship. The first section will argue that both areas have the ‘social’ at their core, both stand for civic values and have long term (and hard to measure) outcomes. Yet, they both created high expectations and share a bias towards what works. The second part will advance several interrogations likely to provoke thinking on the value dilemmas in youth work and social entrepreneurship, alike. Issues such as mission drift, the notion of citizen vs. consumer, the pro and cons of alliance building and partnerships will be touched upon. The presentation argues that –due to a shared commitment to The Social – there is high potential for cooperation between youth work and social entrepreneurship. However, a major precondition is for current dilemmas to be acknowledged and reflected upon.