Social Enterprise, education and the new political economy of Nepal

This article presents a research agenda for studying social enterprise (SE) initiatives in education reform. Whilst based on research experiences gained in Nepal, the discussion here is relevant for similar SE efforts in other ‘developing’ countries as well as high-income contexts that are increasing adopting SE strategies that have been tested elsewhere. The paper outlines how changing processes of governance position SE initiatives as potential solutions to a range of problems that have structural roots in conflicts related to ethnicity, gender and class. However, whilst SE is a new mode of organizing our understanding of such issues, it also has the potential to re-inscribe historic marginalities in new ways. A research agenda focused on exploring the lived experience of SE aims to expose such possibilities and dangers.