Trish Ruebottom
Schulich School of Business, York University
The rhetoric of social change: Social entrepreneurship and legitimacy

truebott@gmail.com

Trish is currently undertaking a PhD at the Schulich School of Business, York University, in policy and strategy. The focus of her research is on social entrepreneurship and social change. Previously, Trish was the Executive Director of the World Fellowship for Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders, where she led the development of an international training program for family support and organized an international conference on community-based and recovery-focused care. Trish has extensive consulting experience working with a range of social enterprises and non-profit organizations, focusing on strategy, partnership development and social innovation.

The rhetoric of social change: Social entrepreneurship and legitimacy

Legitimacy comes from cultural alignment and is important in accessing resources and creating sustainable social change. For social entrepreneurship that seeks to change existing cultural norms and values, the difficulties in acquiring and maintaining legitimacy may pose a challenge that will compromise their ability to create sustainable, institutional change. It is argued that theorization rhetoric, defined as persuasive language purposefully used to problematize the current situation, propose alternatives and motivate others to participate in change, can increase legitimacy by emphasizing pragmatic benefits of outcomes and moral benefits of goals and approach. Two moderators are proposed, based on the individual-opportunity nexus: rhetoric that emphasizes a coalition of people and the opportunity as 'bricolage' (Levi-Strauss, 1966 in Mair & Marti, forthcoming) are posited to increase the persuasive power of the theorization rhetoric, contributing to the success of the organization in creating social change.