Hear-say from the Good Deals 2010 conference

To me, it feels increasingly like social enterprise and co-production (co-design, too) is something the coaltion government is sticking its flag in-- conquering, if you will. I asked around, informally, and off-the-record at the Good Deals 2010 conference in London how socents feel about being re-branded as 'the Big Society.'

Here's what people said:

A few are suspicious of it, but for different reasons:  They are afraid the Conservative party is using the success of social enterprise and local solutions to devolve central government power to disastrous consequences.

A different few are suspicious because there just aren't yet enough details about what the 'Big Society' means-- particularly how it will play a useful role in small business. They aren't convinced by the Social Impact Bonds, particularly because they feel that who undertakes the risk isn't clear-- and simply repeating that returns are based on preformance isn't helping much (ok, that last bit is me).

A few people aren't suspicious at all and feel that if it helps to bring investment to social enterprise, then hooray!

So that's it. Qualified a little better? probably not.