Program Overview

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Firms across the public, private, and third sectors are all considering how environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles should inform their business strategies. Employers across all industries are looking for innovative managers to take the lead on driving sustainability, equality and inclusion objectives to ensure their businesses are shaped for ethical growth and success. MSc Management (Social Economy) will introduce you to the main theories and strategic perspectives associated with the ‘social economy’, those organisations that promote values of sustainability, inclusivity, and equality as part of their core mission. Most importantly, you will learn the concrete ways you can turn these theories into an empowering reality and you will have the opportunity to connect with real-life social organisations in the public, third, and community sectors. On this course you will learn not just the theory of what a social economy means, what sustainability and fairness look like, but also how you could make these a reality within organisations you might run or work for. MSc Management (Social Economy) is perfect if you do not have a first degree in business, or relevant work experience in management. In your first term, you will study a core portfolio of modules that give you a firm basis in management and organisational issues. You will then move on to study specialist modules on social economy exploring issues such as:

• commons ownership
• cooperative management
• mutual aid
• and democratic decision-making

You may be an aspiring manager looking for the tools you need to implement values of sustainability, equality and local empowerment in practical ways across a range of trading markets. You may hope to work for a co-operative, a mutual, or a social enterprise and want to understand how you turn your principles into effective business strategy. This pioneering pathway will provide you with the knowledge and skills to be a twenty-first-century global change-maker as a social economy leader. At Essex Business School we champion responsible management and sustainable business. We want to change business for the better and empower our students to do this too. We’re an internationally diverse community with students and staff joining us from across the globe offering the ideal context for studying social economy management. MSc Management (Social Economy) is one of four unique Masters in management which allow you to pursue your specific career ambitions, the others are: MSc Management , MSc Management (International) and MSc Management (Marketing). Why we're great.

• Understand how to turn your ethical principles into effective business strategy.
• Connect with real-life social organisations in the public, third, and community sectors to contextualise your learning.
• This course is perfect if you do not have a first degree in business, or relevant work experience in management.

Our expert staff

Management and marketing research at Essex Business School is very diverse but can best be described as exploring business with a social conscience. For example, our research investigates workplace ethics, corporate social responsibility and the lived experience of work in the global economy. One of the academics that you may meet during your course is Professor Peter Bloom , a Professor of Management at Essex Business School. His research critically explores the radical possibilities of technology for redefining and transforming contemporary work and society. You may also hear from Dr Nicholas Beuret who is an expert on climate change, environmental politics, the transition to a low carbon economy, degrowth and the commons. He has a particular interest in the role of net zero as an organising principle for start-ups, and profiteering within the green transition economy. The research activities of academics in our management and marketing group is supported by the Centre for Commons Organising, Values Equalities and Resilience (COVER) . The Centre’s research investigates how principles of cooperation, collaboration, and open knowledge sharing can foster more egalitarian, inclusive, and participative 21st-century economies, communities, technologies, and organisations.