Visiting Fellow Gorgi Krlev wins international book award

Gorgi Krlev wins the Virginia Hodgkinson Research Book Prize for Social Economy Science (OUP, November 2023)

The Virginia Hodgkinson Research Book Prize honours the best newly published research that focuses on, and is likely to positively impact, the application of new knowledge to practice and policy issues. The award is annually bestowed by ARNOVA, the American Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action. The prize is awarded in honour of Virginia Hodgkinson’s pioneering research on philanthropy and nonprofit organizations and their social impact.

Kellogg Visiting Fellow Gorgi Krlev and his co-editors Dominika Wruk (University of Mannheim), Giulio Pasi (Loyola University Seville and European Commission) and Marika Bernhard (German Football League and Impact BW) won the 2024 edition of this prestigious award together with the leading academics and practitioners contributing to Social Economy Science.

The book, published by Oxford University Press in 2023 turns to lack of progress in the area of global sustainable development, and difficulties in crisis management, which highlight the need to transform the economy and find new ways of making society more resilient. It underpins the role of the social economy that is increasingly recognised as a driver of such transformations; it comprises traditional forms of cooperative or solidarity-based organisations alongside new phenomena such as impact investing or social tech ventures that aim to contribute to the public good.

Social Economy Science provides the first comprehensive analysis of why and how social economy organisations create superior value for society. The book draws on organisational theory and transition studies to provide a systematic perspective on complex multi-stakeholder forms of action. It discusses the social economy’s role in promoting innovation for impact, as well as its role as an agent of societal change and as a partner to businesses, governments, and citizens.

In February 2024, the book was launched at an event at Kellogg College and built the background for a wider discussion about a ‘People-centred Transition towards Sustainability’. The panel discussion involved Laura Spence (Royal Holloway, University of London and Visiting Fellow at Kellogg College), Marya Besharov (Saïd Business School and Fellow of Kellogg College), Aoife Brophy (Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment), as well as Eleanor Carter and Andreea Anastasiu (Blavatnik School of Government).

The event was co-hosted and co-sponsored with the Government Outcomes Lab at the Blavatnik School of Government, the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, and the Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment.