Case study of transformative social enterprise in India: Jaipur Rugs and Gram Vikas on both sides of the threshold
Presentation Type
Poster
Keywords
social enterprise, transformation, organizational communication
Department
Communication
Major
Business
Abstract
The purpose of this case study was to examine how social enterprises in India transform social cohesion into social capital by negotiating traditional values with cultural sustainability. Transformation was represented as constitutive communication that reproduces and resists rules and resources in order to break double binds for a more just equilibrium. While one organization described making change “without crossing the threshold of the home” and the other by requiring women to “cross the threshold of the home,” both leveraged traditional family values to create sustainable social change. Jaipur Rugs is a for-profit corporation that creates a more just equilibrium by giving weavers (female and lower caste members) direct access to the marketplace through family infrastructure that replaces dependence on corrupt middlemen. Gram Vikas is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organization that creates space for women in patriarchal, rural communities to participate in problem solving about public health issues linked to poverty by “institutionalizing gender” in “uncontested domains.” Paradigm shifts occurred following questioning, reframing, and leveraging old assumptions of family. At Jaipur Rugs, this occurred in the marketplace with a culture of family blessing and “weaving lives” across caste boundaries; and at Gram Vikas, in collective thinking in bonafide groups with other women and in mixed-group, problem-solving processes.
Faculty Mentor
Dr. Juanie Walker, Communication
Funding Source or Research Program
Academic Year Undergraduate Research Initiative
Location
Waves Cafeteria
Start Date
29-3-2019 2:00 PM
End Date
29-3-2019 3:00 PM
Case study of transformative social enterprise in India: Jaipur Rugs and Gram Vikas on both sides of the threshold
Waves Cafeteria
The purpose of this case study was to examine how social enterprises in India transform social cohesion into social capital by negotiating traditional values with cultural sustainability. Transformation was represented as constitutive communication that reproduces and resists rules and resources in order to break double binds for a more just equilibrium. While one organization described making change “without crossing the threshold of the home” and the other by requiring women to “cross the threshold of the home,” both leveraged traditional family values to create sustainable social change. Jaipur Rugs is a for-profit corporation that creates a more just equilibrium by giving weavers (female and lower caste members) direct access to the marketplace through family infrastructure that replaces dependence on corrupt middlemen. Gram Vikas is a non-governmental, not-for-profit organization that creates space for women in patriarchal, rural communities to participate in problem solving about public health issues linked to poverty by “institutionalizing gender” in “uncontested domains.” Paradigm shifts occurred following questioning, reframing, and leveraging old assumptions of family. At Jaipur Rugs, this occurred in the marketplace with a culture of family blessing and “weaving lives” across caste boundaries; and at Gram Vikas, in collective thinking in bonafide groups with other women and in mixed-group, problem-solving processes.