Common health
Led by Professor Cam Donaldson, CommonHealth was a pioneering research project to develop ways of measuring the impact of social enterprises on the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. Through collaborative research the project team were able to evaluate new pathways to health creation and health inequalities reduction arising from social enterprise.
Social enterprises and a wide range of stakeholders and investigators from several disciplines were involved in our research and activities. This allowed us to co-create measures that are relevant, effective and user-friendly.
The aims of the study were to:
- Co-create valuable and practical framework of measures.
- Share and test ideas with stakeholders in Knowledge Exchange Forums.
- Create a new scientific understanding of the health and wellbeing impacts of social enterprise
- Support the creation of an evidence base for social enterprise as a health and well-being intervention
- Enhance multi-disciplinary social science research in this area by involving a wide range of academic researchers and practitioners from across Scotland.
Nine projects comprised the study:
Project 1: A historical perspective on social enterprise as a public health intervention
Project 2 – A contemporary analysis of social enterprise as a public health intervention
Project 3 – Growth at the edge
Project 4 – Passage from India
Project 7 – Housing through Social Enterprise
Project 8 – Bringing it all together
Project 9 – ‘Project Plus’: Arts and health through social enterprise (PhD project)
Selected Publications:
- Henderson, Fiona, Artur Steiner, Micaela Mazzei, and Catherine Docherty. 2019. ‘Social Enterprises’ Impact on Older People’s Health and Wellbeing: Exploring Scottish Experiences’. Health Promotion International, October, daz102.
- Murray, Gillian. 2018. ‘Community Business in Scotland: An Alternative Vision of “Enterprise Culture”, 1979–97’. Twentieth Century British History, June.
- Kelly, Danielle, Artur Steiner, Micaela Mazzei, and Rachel Baker. 2019. ‘Filling a Void? The Role of Social Enterprise in Addressing Social Isolation and Loneliness in Rural Communities’. Journal of Rural Studies 70: 225–36.
- Macaulay, Bobby, Micaela Mazzei, Michael J. Roy, Simon Teasdale, and Cam Donaldson. 2018. ‘Differentiating the Effect of Social Enterprise Activities on Health’. Social Science & Medicine 200 (March): 211–17.
- Macaulay, Bobby, Michael J. Roy, Cam Donaldson, Simon Teasdale, and Alan Kay. 2018. ‘Conceptualizing the Health and Well-Being Impacts of Social Enterprise: A UK-Based Study’. Health Promotion International 33 (5): 748–59.
Project Lead: Cam Donaldson
Project Team: Rachel Baker, Catherine Docherty, Clementine Hill O’Connor, Janet Greenlees, Fiona Henderson, Alan Kay, Danielle Kelly, Melanie Liddell, Bobby Macaulay, Gillian Murray, Steve Rolfe, Michael Roy, Artur Steiner, Simon Teasdale, Isobel Anderson, Heather Fulford, Jon Godwin, Antony Morgan, Sarah-Anne Munoz, Pete Seaman, Dawn Skelton, Hilary Thomson, Enrico Bellazzecca.