Chapter 3: Role of Social Entrepreneurship in the Quality of Life of its Beneficiaries

Social entrepreneurship works as building blocks for an alternative model, in a situation where both market and state have failed to provide adequate social goods. Social entrepreneurship serves humanity’s most pressing needs by providing social goods, such as education, health services, adequate housing, recreational facilities and participation in political decision-making. Social entrepreneurship is growing as an independent area of research because it reorients and broadens third sector forms. This study uses the case study method and analyzes two cases of social entrepreneurship in the Bengaluru area. The focus is on how social entrepreneurship affects the lives of the people who are its beneficiaries. Development theory, referring to development sociology and development economics, provides a suitable base to carry the analysis of changes in the lives of social entrepreneurship’s beneficiaries, i.e., the people who are associated with social entrepreneurship and receive their services or goods. This sociological inquiry uses the capabilities approach to observe capabilities and functionings of the beneficiaries and whether social entrepreneurship has a role in providing them with choices or freedom to better their lives.