They See People in Need and They Want to Help: Social Enterprise and Wellbeing in Rural Communities

This chapter considers the experience of rural areas within the Global North by positioning evidence about social enterprise in rural Scotland, within wider rural social entrepreneurship and wellbeing literature. The chapter proposes that social enterprise and processes of social entrepreneurship do generate wellbeing in rural communities and for rural residents. The chapter demonstrates, through a case study example, some of the ways in which rural social enterprises can be conceptualised as spaces of wellbeing. In summary, the chapter argues for greater awareness of how social entrepreneurship in rural areas is bound up with what can be considered to be the every day, the ordinary, and the unexceptional as well as with the performance of rural identity. It is argued that by understanding more about these processes and mechanisms, we can deepen our insight into the relationships between social enterprise and wellbeing in rural areas.