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The Journal of Enterprising Communities: People & Places publishes research that considers people, communities and their enterprises and how they form an inter-connected and co-evolving system, with each depending on the others for their overall effectiveness.

ISSN: 1750-6204
eISSN: 1750-6204

Aims and scope

Increasingly, the events critical to the sustainable prosperity of people (culturally, socially, economically and environmentally), are being played out at the nexus of the local or the community level (people in places), and the trans-national level (corporations, groups and movements of the civil sector, and supranational organizations and agreements). Enterprises are the vehicles often used by communities of people in pursuit of sustainable prosperity as they define it in this context.

These enterprises are not always, or even often, businesses in the classic sense. Rather they have much broader goals, many of them social/cultural/environmental rather than economic, and they exhibit diverse forms of ownership, organization and operation. In a wide variety of places, among diverse groups of people, these efforts are succeeding. Unfortunately, in many more places and for many groups, such efforts are failing or they are not being attempted at all. The Journal of Enterprising Communities (JEC) will both create and inform the debate in this exciting area of research.

Broadly speaking, works published in JEC come from the intersection of two broad areas of research: (i) development studies and (ii) entrepreneurship and venture creation studies. The common thread creating intersections is the community. Rigorously written empirical, conceptual and review papers are welcome, as are case studies.

From development studies broadly conceived, we look for submissions to examine sustainable development, bottom-of-the-pyramid development, indigenous development, grassroots development, and the like. As well, we look for submissions that explore the mechanisms for development such as microfinance, fair trade, free trade, environment, and other special branding, and so on.

From entrepreneurship and venture creation studies, we expect that the articles in JEC will explore needs and opportunity identification like social entrepreneurship and gender/ethnic/indigenous entrepreneurship. Again, we look to the explorations of entrepreneurship mechanisms such as innovation, venture planning, creation, development and management, and venture financing.

Bringing together elements of these wide areas of study, the community (broadly conceived) is the central element of all articles we publish. Examples of communities using enterprise to improve their circumstances, given the challenges they face, include:

  • Indigenous communities particularly in resource-rich remote areas.
  • Communities in areas where global economic changes have destroyed their historic economic base (e.g. coal mining areas of Great Britain and the rust belt communities in the United States).
  • Communities impacted by environmental impacts related resource depletion (e.g. the loss of the Atlantic cod fishery, or the effects of climate change (e.g. rising sea levels, melting permafrost and changing weather patterns).
  • Communities struggling to prosper while maintaining important non-mainstream characteristics such as religious communities (e.g. the Amish and the Hutterite), and other ethnic communities (e.g. the Basque in Spain and the Gaelic in Ireland).
  • Communities in areas emerging from conflict (e.g. South Sudan and Sri Lanka) or colonial/oppressed status (e.g. the Baltic states once part of the USSR).
  • Communities of people displaced by war and terrorism (e.g. Palestinians, Syrians, Somalis and many others).
  • Other groups that self-identify as communities based on a set of characteristics that differentiate members of the communities from non-members and pursue enterprise in the pursuit of community advancement.

 

Submitting special issue proposals to Journal of Enterprising Communities

Special issues enquiries should be directed to the Special Issue Editor Dolores Botella-Carrubi ([email protected]). It is expected that special issues are primarily proposed or supported by editorial board members and associate editors.

Initial proposals for special issues should outline the subject area and currency of the subject area. Following discussion with the Co-Editors-in-Chief, proposals with the potential to generate high-quality submissions can be developed which will then be subject to double blind peer review.

Following the review process, special issues which are commissioned will join the pipeline of special issues for JEC to be advertised and launched as soon as possible.

This journal is aligned with our responsible management goal

We aim to champion researchers, practitioners, policymakers and organisations who share our goals of contributing to a more ethical, responsible and sustainable way of working.

SDG 8 Decent work & economic growth
SDG 9 Industry, innovation & infrastructure
SDG 10 Reduced inequalities
SDG 11 Sustainable cities & communities
SDG 12 Responsible consumption & production
SDG 13 Climate action
Find out about our responsible management goal