An international networker has the privilege to travel all the time getting in touch with the subtleties of societies.
This is the first event for the French social entrepreneurs; a hundred of them led by Hugues Sibille – grand chef of AVISE, Credit Coop and many other organizations – launched the White Book of Social Entrepreneurship , welcomed by the Minister of Employment, a cool Sarko kid, as a major ally of government in tackling the social emergency following the economic downturn.
We must recognize that this new generation of third sector leaders is cool. The French arrogance can be very effective when strategically channeled. Even Ashoka guys looked nice at the event. Actually, the social entrepreneurs I met in the Netherlands and Germany were cool as well. Perhaps it’s an issue just with the Brits who suffered for the puritan legacy…Our french friends can be also very obsessive about social economy – never call it ‘third sector’ in France unless you want to be banned from francophone countries for ever!
On Friday I was invited to a lunch with leaders of the social economy. Since my old times in Italy or Brasil, I’ve never been involved in such a passionate discussion about the identity of the third sector. Without mentioning the Brits who don’t mess up with concepts unless they’re paid to do it, my general experience is a passive acceptance of the multiplicity of names and definitions of the third sector across the world. Here is the opposite; the social economy is this and all the rest it’s not.
After the royal lunch at Credit Mutuel, a top player of the sector in the country, I understood why they are strict about the definition. I would be selective with the list of invitees entitled to join our third sector meals as well if the Brits would offer the same menu. Although the Brits pretend to have bigger sector the French have a better one and are obsessed with it.
On the other hand, I found something else at that lunch: passion. A passion for values and mission. Working in the social economy is not a job but the right thing to do. It’s more than a profession – especially if you challenge the capitalist corporations as they claim.
I’m a kid of Macchiavelli, Voltaire and Kissinger all together. I’m a skeptic who doesn’t believe that even Zeus holds the truth. I might laugh at their fundamentalism but admire their passion. Perhaps we need less realism and more dreams. This is the lesson of Obama’s success… a success that has lasted so far…
