Diplocat launches the MDAE Alumni network

The network started up its activity with a dinner debate on social economy

The first activity of the MDAE Alumni network, a dinner debate on social economy with the participation of Alex Murdock, London South Bank University Professor, and Karel Vanderpoorten, Social Economy Policy Officer at the European Commission, was held on Wednesday 27 November. The debate also included the participation of Diplocat Secretary General Laura Foraster and other speakers at the workshop on "The social economy: Comparative models", jointly organised on 28 November by Social Business City Barcelona and the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (Diplocat).

The MDAE Alumni network is one of the actions included in the empowerment line of work of the Diplocat Strategic Plan 2019-2020 and has been created with the aim of continuing training and fostering debate among the graduates of the five editions of the Executive Master in Diplomacy and Foreign Action (MDAE), an instrument at the service of the staff of the public administrations of Catalonia (Generalitat of Catalonia and local administrations). One of the activities organised as part of the network is that of dinner debates. They afford the opportunity to establish a direct dialogue with a personality visiting Catalonia from abroad at the invitation of one of the bodies in charge of the MDAE.

On this occasion, the alumni had the opportunity to meet Professor Alex Murdock and talk to him about the social economy and social enterprise. In answer to the alumni's questions, the English expert asserted that there is no unanimity on the definition of the social economy, neither its name nor the concept as such, and that over and above the discussion as to whether we are talking about for-profit or non-profit companies, what matters is that "in the social economy it's not about profit; it's about what you do with the profit."

Another guest speaker at the dinner debate, Karel Vanderpoorten, answered the questions put by the network members about the legal difficulties faced by social enterprises due to the lack of clear purpose-built legislation regulating their activity and the differences that exist between countries in this area.

The experience of the first dinner debate within the MDAE Alumni network was valued very positively by the members of the network, both for the topic discussed and for the possibility of being able to question and talk directly to experts in their field.