杏吧论坛

Dr Jonathan Roberts Marshall Institute, 5 Lincoln's Inn Fields

Other teachers: Professor Julian Le Grand and Professor Stephan Chambers, Marshall Institute

This course is available on the MPA Dual Degree (杏吧论坛 and Columbia), MPA Dual Degree (杏吧论坛 and Hertie), MPA Dual Degree (杏吧论坛 and NUS), MPA Dual Degree (杏吧论坛 and Sciences Po), MPA Dual Degree (杏吧论坛 and Tokyo) and Master of Public Administration. This course is not available as an outside option.

This course is only available to MPA students in Year 2 of their programme. The course is a collaboration between the Marshall Institute and the School of Public Policy.   

Private actions for public benefit - whether called philanthropy, charity, associationalism, social entrepreneurship or social business - have long been significant within societies.  This arena of private action is currently experiencing both resurgence and disruption.  This course takes a policy-oriented approach towards these new dynamics of private social action.  It explores innovative mechanisms of financing, organisation and delivery, including impact investing, new coalitions for social impact (for instance, social impact bonds), venture philanthropy and social enterprise.    A central focus is the opportunity created by bringing together market and business mechanisms and the social – but also the consequent challenge and complexity of achieving social impact through hybrid organisations, hybrid funding streams and hybrid mechanisms of coordination.  Cross-cutting themes are how to design incentive structures which respond to the complex web of motivations of actors in this field, and the organisational tension inherent in responding to double or triple bottom lines.  

Using analytical frameworks drawn from economics, sociology and political economy, the course will critically evaluate the challenges and advantages of these emerging institutions and mechanisms.  Examples of the types of question that we will investigate include: what is social enterprise? How can social enterprises support social innovation and impact? Can we combine financial return, social impact and environmental sustainability?  Why should an organisation be a non-profit, for-profit or other ownership form?  How can the state, market and private altruistic action combine to achieve social impact? How can we design organisations and structures which nurture and capitalise on values and altruism? What are the differences between the culture, practice and motivations of state, commercial and charitable organisations, and what are the consequent challenges of implementation and management in hybrid organisations?  The answers to these questions are contested and the course seeks to give participants the critical skills to make their own determination.

This course is delivered through a combination of lectures, classes and workshops  totalling a minimum of 34 hours across the Lent Term. This year some or all of this teaching may be delivered through a combination of remote live classes and workshops, and various remote asynchronous activities, including flipped-lectures delivered as short online videos and recorded videos