Industrial Organization, Non Profit Economics

• Sponsor: FWO
• Promoter: Anaïs Périlleux
• IRES Researcher: Jozef Cossey
• Start date: 2020
• End date: 2024

Project description

The purpose of this thesis is to challenge the taken for granted belief that efforts to address environmental degradation at the firm-level are inherently good or beneficial. The focus on potential, unintended consequences of firm actions throughout this PhD seeks to complement existing discussions in the literature focused on corporate ecological inaction and greenwashing.  

To this end, this dissertation draws on the concept of policy resistance as an overarching concept for several mechanisms that try to explain the often counterintuitive results of well-intentioned interventions. Consequently, this dissertation focuses empirically on companies that explicitly seek to address environmental degradation through their economic activities, a type of venturing that is often denoted as environmental entrepreneurship. 

• Sponsor: Walloon Region
• Promoter: Anaïs Périlleux
• IRES Researcher: Coralie Helleputte
• Start date: September 2023
• End date: September 2025

Project description 

The Chair in Social Economy (chairES) at UCLouvain is one of four chairES (ULiège, UMONS, ULB and UCLouvain) supported by the Walloon Region between 2022 and 2025 to conduct transdisciplinary research in social economy, in close connection with the ecosystem of social enterprises in the Walloon Region and Brussels. 
More precisely the two objectives of this Chaire is:

a) To strengthen the University's ability to respond, through its research, teaching and ecosystem support activities, to the issues raised by the growth of the social economy theme; 

b) To consolidate the legitimacy of social enterprise models in the region's economic landscape, given the potential of this type of enterprise to respond to societal challenges. 

• Sponsor: Walloon Region
• Promoter: Anaïs Périlleux
• IRES researcher: Zoé Debroeyer
• Start Date: October 2023
• End date: September 2027

Project description

The PhD thesis examines the organizational resilience of Social Economy (SE) organizations. Specifically, it aims to understand the mechanisms and tools these organizations implement to adapt and navigate crises and periods of uncertainty. The first part will focus on the relationship between the unique characteristics of SE organizations and their resilience mechanisms. The second part will involve comparative analyses with organizations in the conventional economy. By employing mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative), the PhD seeks to ground itself in practical fieldwork to address the current challenges faced by SE organizations. 

• Sponsor: FNRS
• Promoter: Anaïs Périlleux
• Start date: September 2024
• End date: September 2026

Project description

In the face of the multiplicity of crises, a variety of work has leveraged the concepts on and around the commons to bring a commons fix to capitalism, of which commoning has been presented as a solution. Commoning is concerned with the way civil society organizes and creates organizations to support the development of collaborative communities governing commons. In doing so, commoning makes space for alternative governance practices to develop new social production and organization modes, and reduce social inequalities. Yet, literature has shown that commoning practices are hindered by tensions. In this research project, we wish to focus on the governance mechanisms developed through commoning practices so to reduce group tensions. We take the case of squats as extreme cases of urban commons. Indeed, through their anti-market nature and often illegal settings, squats intend to reclaim the commons, reduce inequalities, and target decommodification.  

Sponsor: FSR
IRES Promoter: Anaïs Périlleux
IRES Researchers: Esmeralda Gerritse
Start date: 2019
End date: 2023

Project description

Cooperatives, one of the oldest types of social enterprises, have received fresh attention because they can play an important role in social and ecological transition. This research project will focus on the sustainability of worker cooperatives and the new wave of so-called “social cooperatives”. First, it will analyse the resilience of SCOP, the French worker cooperatives, to the recent crisis. Secondly, it will look at “social cooperatives” and investigate their survivability. Thirdly, it will explore the institutional arrangements/governance structure of worker cooperatives and social cooperatives to analyse their similarities and divergences and to see to what extent those organisations can be understood as commons.

Sponsor: Concert ES ASBL, Walloon Government
IRES Promoter: Anaïs Périlleux
Start date: 2020
End date: 2023

Project description

The "DENIS" project is a follow-up of the VISE project (2016-2019). The project sheds light on the impact of social enterprises on the dynamism and welfare of the local territories where they locate. It is a multidisciplinary framework, in which academic researcher, federations and social enterprises cooperate to develop new methods of impact assessment and valorization.

Sponsor: EC/COST
IRES Promoter: Marthe Nyssens
Start date: 2017
End date: 2021

Project description

This Cost Action aims at:

Contributing to a comprehensive understanding of the diversity of SE models emerging across Europe and globally;
Empowering the next generation of SE scholars, focusing on expanding the SE scientific community to less research-intensive countries where it is still embryonic or non-existing;
Fostering evidence-based policy from local to European levels and supporting the development of SE and their eco-systems in synergy with main industry representatives and stakeholders;
Implementing networking mechanisms to connect fragmented communities and to contribute to closing the gap between the scientific community, policy- makers and society throughout Europe and beyond.
More information on the COST website

• Sponsor: Innoviris
• IRES promoter: Marthe Nysens
• IRES Researchers: Ela Callorda
• Start date: