Social entrepreneurship in rural areas

Predmet proučevanja v magistrskem delu je socialno oziroma družbeno odgovorno podjetništvo na podeželju, predvsem v Sloveniji. Za določitev podeželskih socialnih podjetij smo morali najprej narediti (navidezno) mejo med podeželskim in nepodeželskim prostorom, kar smo dosegli s poenostavljeno členitvijo podeželskega prostora. Med množico poslovnih subjektov, ki so registrirani oziroma delujejo na tem določenem podeželskem prostoru, smo iskali tista podjetja, ki poleg svojega dobička zavestno vlagajo tudi v rast družbene vrednosti. Veliko smo jih našli v evidenci slovenskih socialnih podjetijkar nekaj je tudi takih, ki tovrstnega statusa nimajo, kar pomeni, da je njihovo prisotnost in predvsem delovanje težje zaznati. Socialno podjetništvo in socialna ekonomija sta na slovenskem podeželju prisotna že vse od konca 18. stoletja, ko se je pričelo razvijati zadružništvo. Danes se pojavlja v številnih različnih pravnoorganizacijskih oblikah in dejavnostih ter ima še ogromno prostora za nadaljnji razvoj. Eno od možnosti smo nakazali v tem magistrskem delu, in sicer s pomočjo dizajnerskega pristopa, ki dobro dopolnjuje geografsko dojemanje prostora in iskanje vzročno-posledičnih povezav med elementi v njem. Pripravili smo preprost poslovni model za vzpostavitev ekoregije na območju LAS Barje z zaledjem.The subject of study in this master\u27s thesis is social or socially responsible entrepreneurship in rural areas, especially in Slovenia. To find social enterprises in rural areas, we first had to make a boundary between rural and non-rural space, which we achieved by making a simple division of rural space. Among the multitude of business entities registered or operating in the rural area, we looked for those companies that, in addition to their profits, also consciously invest in the growth of social values. We found many of them in the official records of Slovenian social enterprises. However, there are also quite a few of them that do not have this type of status. Their presence and, above all, their operation is, therefore, more difficult to detect. Social entrepreneurship and the social economy have been present in the Slovenian countryside since the end of the 18th century when cooperatives began to develop. Today, they appear in various legal organizational forms and activities which still have a lot of room for further development. One of the possibilities is indicated in this master\u27s thesis and involves a design thinking method that complements the geographical view of space and its cause-and-effect connections between the elements. We prepared a simple business model for the establishment of an ecoregion in the area of LAG Barje with the hinterland