Explaining to someone that you can predict the future thanks to ‘the voices’ usually signifies a cause for concern. However, Inside Social Enterprise use the term ‘the voices’ to introduce a series of almost 40 interviews with a broad range of social enterprise professionals, from practitioners, through to policymakers through to academics. Helen Fitzhugh, an independent researcher who is currently completing her PhD at the University of East Anglia, and Nicky Stevenson, a practitioner by trade, primarily focus their interviews on questioning where social enterprise could be in twenty years’ time whilst still allowing room for small divergences to different topics. The thought-provoking opinions gathered in the interviews are not presented verbatim, neither are they set out in the traditional academic sense with its structures, themes and commonalities. Instead, the authors provide an evaluation of the main topics discussed with each individual and this style lends itself particularly well to those for whom it is presumably intended: those in the early stages of exploring the various discussions going on today in the social enterprise movement in England. It may also be a valuable resource for practitioners seeking reinvigoration, new ideas or simply to broaden their own perspective.

The interviews are grouped under seven different and broad titles. These sub-chapters loosely correlate to the areas within which the participants were allowed to stray from the brief and introduce topics that they felt contributed to the understanding of the wider question. Despite these segmentations it was clear to see themes emerging across all sub-chapters. To the extent that some of the opinions became repetitive, yet, it could be argued this adds to the emphasis. One such example was that in the next twenty years people want to see social enterprise regarded as an equivalent to the ‘mainstream’ business model, by businesses, banks and the public. Karin Christiansen, General Secretary of the Co-operative Party, is one such voice for the co-op movement, adding that “we need to influence the norms in the today's markets” (p. 37) in order to be “big and powerful” (p. 38). Jesse Norman, a Conservative MP, suggests that now is the correct time to use this influence, due to what he suggests is the current “crisis in capitalism” (p.113). Considering the extent to which the social enterprise has reached the public consciousness in the past twenty years, it proves difficult to imagine that such a goal can be reached in the following twenty with the comparative ease and to the scale that is suggested in some of the interviews, without significant and ongoing government intervention to a level not seen to date, which may be a tad optimistic. Yet, without such visions, public acceptance and support for social enterprise, and the work done in this area so far would likely melt away.

What the social enterprise ‘movement’ could do to eventually reach the point of widespread acceptance is also discussed on several occasions, many congregating at a similar answer: to create large scale social enterprises that can compete in mainstream markets by adopting what could be termed ‘best practice’ in running a (mainstream) business. June O'Sullivan, CEO of a childcare charity, agrees with this position, explaining that “people buy our service because it's good and they come to all the social stuff afterwards” (p. 87). Steve Mollison, managing director of a design CIC, seconds the motion, adding that, through running as a business first and foremost, social enterprises can build sustainable relationships with the public and therefore become more trusted and accepted as a viable alternative business model. On one level these opinions may appear disheartening as they potentially indicate a form of ‘mission drift’ that subordinates the social mission as secondary to profit, thus (it could reasonably be argued) rendering the main goal of the social enterprise movement null and void. However, these points are also entirely valid within the context of the drive to ‘achieve scale’, if that is the main aim. If the social enterprise movement is to grow into a form that will compete on a level playing field with traditional business models, then scaling up through adopting said business methods could well be an efficient way to do so. Indeed, over a decade ago Dart (Reference Dart2004) was suggesting that there is a trend for social enterprises to move towards business-like models as a result of isomorphic/ideological forces. However, is that really the best, or most imaginative, way to transform society?

‘The voices’ touch upon almost every key area of interest relating to the contemporary social enterprise landscape in England, with real life examples presented from various ideological perspectives. An added benefit of presenting such a plurality of perspectives is that the extremes of opinion are not omitted (as they may be in academic work) yet they still touch upon common themes. It is these extreme and outlying opinions that help to convey the passion and emotion of individuals. These emotions are the true common theme: they are the reason this book exists and what this book exists for. If anything can be predicted about the future of social enterprise, it is that there seems to be no shortage of passion for social change, and that passion can be transformed into action through some form of social enterprise. Whether such action, no matter how well intended, will ultimately prove fruitless in the face of global forces, remains something to be tested, perhaps in 20 years’ time.