Rwanda and Social Entrepreneurs: Why You Should Read Jeff Chu

Published March 31, 2009 @ 08:13AM PT

Fishing Lure: To help Rwanda draw tourists, a Dubai company is investing millions in hotels, and a U.S. group has plans to build an eco-lodge at this site on Lake Rweru. | Photograph by Marcus Bleasdale-Fast Company

One of my favorite connections from the Skoll World Forum last week was meeting Jeff Chu, a senior editor at Fast Company magazine who covers the social entrepreneurship (and general do-gooder) beat.

I first noticed his byline reading a great story about Rwanda, or more specifically Rwandan president Paul Kagame's strategy for drawing global business to Rwandan producers, in the latest print issue. The thing I thought was great about the article, "Rwanda Rising: A New Model of Economic Development," was that it told a good story while highlighting the nuanced complication Kagame presents for the West. He's got an extraordinary amount of power - far more than our notion of "democratization" normally allows for - and he doesn't show a lot of signs of ceding that. At the same time, he's done an incredible job facilitating the renaissance of the country, and is widely admired.

He brings that same eye for ambiguity to his coverage of the social entrepreneurship world. His set of posts from the Skoll Forum show both a real appreciation for the work that social leaders are doing, but also an important critical eye. Witness: "Jargon Mania: A Social-Enterprise Lexicon:"

There's nothing like a conference to breed and spread fresh jargon. At the Skoll World Forum for Social Entrepreneurship, they've included "impact," "accountability," "social business," that old standby "best practices," and of course "social entrepreneurship." Paul Farmer, of Mountains Beyond Mountains and Partners in Health fame observed wryly in his panel discussion that "metrics is the second-most fetishized word here after scale."

Over the three days of the Skoll Forum, I've collected new (to me) and noxious terms that popped up in the panel discussions I attended. I'll be clear: It's not the concepts that offend me so much as the gobbledygookishness of these phrases, which somehow is directly proportional to the likelihood they'll enter wider industry use...

Humanizing capitalism – as in, capitalism that humanizes.

Interconnected prosperity - "Hope, joy, empathy, community." Kumbaya!

Justice entrepreneur - I do not have a clue what this means. Someone who makes money from justice? Sells justice? Makes money from getting justice for others?

Spinternet – Spin + internet.

Spontaneous community - Syn.: slum...

Our field - just like any field - needs smart voices who recognize that "critic" and "supporter" are not mutually exclusive terms. I highly recommend keeping track of Chu's writing. Find Jeff on Twitter @jeffchu

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Author

Nathaniel is the founding Director of the Center for Global Engagement at Northwestern University, which works annually with hundreds of students in dozens of countries around the world through curricular programs and student project incubation.