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More than the usual academic textbook, the present volume presents sociology as terrain that one can virtually traverse and experience. Each version of the sociological imagination captured by the chapter essays takes the readers to the realm of the taken-for-granted (such as zoological collections, food, education, entrepreneurship, religious participation, etc.) and the extraordinary (the likes of organizational fraud, climate change, labour relations, multiple modernities, etc.) - altogether presumed to be problematic and yet possible. Using the sociological perspective as the frame of reference, the readers are invited to interrogate the realities and trends which their social worlds relentlessly create for them, allowing them in return, to discover their unique locations in their cultures' social map.

Sociology. --- Social theory --- Social sciences --- Social impact of environmental issues

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The book was adapted from an investigation that was presented to the National University of the Altiplano (UNA). The objective was to determine the relationship between perceptions about the problem of environmental pollution and environmental attitudes in students of the Faculty of Educational Sciences (FCEDUC) of UNA Puno, Peru. The research method was the quantitative approach, the non-experimental type and the design was correlational. For this purpose, the population was made up of 778 students, with an intentional sample of 113 students. The data collection techniques were the evaluation technique and the Likert-type attitude test, the instruments being the test of perceptions of environmental pollution and the Likert scale of attitudes. The statistical design that was applied was the chi square (X2) for the hypothesis test. The results show that there is a significant relationship between the study variables of perceptions with attitudes about environmental problems according to the inferential statistics that was X2 = 62.534. It was concluded that the problem of environmental pollution is the task of all citizens to put into practice the care and preservation of the environment with attitudes that help not to contaminate nature. El libro fue adecuado a partir de una investigación que se presentó a la Universidad Nacional del Altiplano (UNA). El objetivo consistió en determinar la relación que existe entre las percepciones sobre la problemática de contaminación ambiental con las actitudes ambientales en estudiantes de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación (FCEDUC) de la UNA Puno, Perú. El método de investigación fue el enfoque cuantitativo, el tipo no experimental y el diseño fue correlacional. Para tal efecto la población fue conformada por 778 estudiantes, con una muestra intencional de 113 estudiantes. Las técnicas de recolección de datos fueron la técnica de evaluación y test de actitudes de tipo Likert, siendo los instrumentos el test de percepciones de contaminación ambiental y la escala de actitudes de Likert. El diseño estadístico que se aplicó fue el chi cuadrado (X2) para la prueba de hipótesis. Los resultados demuestran que existe relación significativa entre las variables de estudio de percepciones con las actitudes sobre problemas ambientales de acuerdo con la estadística inferencial que fue X2 = 62,534. Se pudo concluir que la problemática de contaminación ambiental es tarea de todos los ciudadanos para poner en práctica el cuidado y preservación del medio ambiente con actitudes que ayuden a no contaminar la naturaleza.

Social impact of environmental issues --- contaminación --- conservación --- medio ambiente

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As traditional businesses, social companies must have access to resources to finance their day-to-day operations and make the necessary investments to pursue their activities. However, many are not profitable enough to access traditional funding and cannot fund themselves completely through sales or investment. They frequently need special financing approaches. New types of financing have emerged for such enterprises such as crowdfunding. The present research focuses on this modern financing mode available to social entrepreneurs which is constantly expanding and increasingly used. As the role of the social crowdfunding platform is to be an intermediary bringing two parties together, the question of trust is of outmost importance and therefore, social entrepreneurs as well as investors need to trust their intermediary and the information which is available to them. This project aims at clarifying and evaluating the panel of the existing social crowdfunding platforms currently operating in the Belgium landscape and to perform a comparative analysis to deepen one’s knowledge about the communication disclosed (the trust signals) by the platforms in order for their potential users to trust them.
To achieve this, a grid of analysis based on trust signals retrieved from the literature has been elaborated. This grid has been applied to the nine social crowdfunding platforms available in today’s Belgian landscape. It has been observed that the nine platforms decided to communicate rather effectively most of the important visible trust signals. Some communicate more signals than others, but in a general manner, they have many similarities in the way they communicate, and they are consistent with their values and business models. This imply they wish to show their transparency, and desire to communicate about their values and the way they function in an effective manner, to demonstrate both the potential social investors and entrepreneurs that they can trust them. It also suggests it can be quite difficult for the probable users to elect the appropriate social crowdfunding platform in front of these comparable offers. Hence, the platforms should communicate more signals and do so in the most effective manner.
The findings of this study help to extend one’s awareness of the supply of social crowdfunding platforms available today in Belgium. It suggests more clarity and a better understanding of the available landscape for the platform’s users. Moreover, it can also aid the platforms to detect and improve the quality of their communication practices and services. This research can serve to further analyze the phenomenon of social crowdfunding platforms in Belgium that will continue evolving significantly in the coming years. It also presents several limitations such as the observer bias, or the fact the signals chosen may not be complete or appropriate enough, which undoubtably allows suggestions for future research.

social impact crowdfunding --- crowdfunding --- social impact financing --- crowdfunding platforms --- social crowdfunding platforms --- belgium --- social crowdfunding --- social enterprises --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Economie sociale

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Over the past few years, a new investment philosophy has appeared in the universe of social finance. Impact investing intents to obtain financial returns alongside with social impact. Investors direct funds in projects that create positive social or environmental outcomes and focus on the measurement of impact. Impact investing is seen as a potential solution to meet the ever increasing social needs of the populations in a period during which governments have fewer financial capabilities to do so.
However, its future development entails several challenges. Indeed, key issues emerge around the measurement of social impact, the liquidity of the instruments, the presence of track records and efficient intermediaries, the terminology confusion and whether or not the regulatory environment is enabling. The question also arises whether or not to involve retail and institutional investors on the market.
After describing the concept and the different stakeholders involved in the ecosystem, this master thesis, entitled "The perspectives and challenges to the development of the impact investing market in Belgium", analyses these challenges abroad and then identifies their importance in Belgium through interviews of professionals linked to the topic. The aim is to compare the theoretical and practical aspects and to provide a mapping of the current state of the Belgian market and its perspectives of development in the near future.

Impact investing --- Social impact --- Blended value --- Venture Philanthropy --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Finance

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The field of Impact Investing is currently experiencing an increasing amount of academics and practitioners’ contributions. Much has been explored in terms of the “whys” of impact investments in a reasoned attempt of “field-building”. It is not possible to say the same as far as the prevalent vehicles of Impact Investing, impact investment funds (managed by specialized firms), are concerned. The present work has in fact targeted this specific area of research which still shows huge gaps for interdisciplinary “innovative” entry points, even if it is at a very low stage of “literature-maturity” also with regards to the datasets of information available to allow the support of robust hypotheses driven paths. Nevertheless, it has been decided to take the challenge of building “manually” a dataset of descriptive elements for a globally spread sample of fifty funds in order for the author to be able to make the first steps towards the investigation and also to make it available for future interested scholars. Investigation which is namely focused on a permeating research question: what is the current level of public transparency and accountability observable along the two structural dimensions (the social impact strategies/measurement and the fund investment strategy) connoting impact investment funds and their management firms? The methodological principle chosen implied a “content analysis” of publicly available sources of information to enucleate evidences (and “mute” ones, too) and summarize the inferences made accordingly through a scoring approach of the different extents of thematic “voluntary” disclosure observable in this emerging market. In conclusion, it has been included a very basic attempt to test some relationship hypotheses between identified parameters of analysis without the claim to formulate exhaustive conclusions (seen the restricted size of the sample) but more with the optics to implicitly give hints for further topics of inquiry, potentially more focused on single or few actors but counting on the chance to be supported by wider primary data sources (interviews, direct contacts with impact investing networks, confidential data on financial performances, etc.).

Impact Investing --- Impact Investment Funds --- Fund Industry --- Social Impact Strategies --- Public Transparency --- Accountability --- Social Impact Investing --- Impact Investments --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Multidisciplinaire, généralités & autres --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Economie sociale --- Sciences économiques & de gestion > Finance