Catalysing Change in Jordan: Insights from the Doing Good, Growing Strong Project

Social impact and social innovation in Jordan are deeply embedded in long-standing traditions of solidarity, faith-based giving, and mutual support that structure everyday social life. Across family, tribal, neighbourhood, and religious networks. Traditional practices of cooperation have historically provided mechanisms for social welfare, resilience, and collective responsibility, long before the emergence of formal development or social entrepreneurship frameworks.

The Doing Good, Growing Strong project examines how donor-driven and market-oriented development frameworks have reshaped social impact in Jordan, influencing power relations and priorities within the ecosystem. It critically explores how these dynamics often privilege measurable, entrepreneurial interventions over long-standing community-rooted and faith-based practices of collective care.

In this workshop, researchers from the Doing Good, Growing Strong project will discuss whether the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) offers a forward-looking and locally grounded pathway for social impact in Jordan, with particular attention to power, legitimacy, and the recognition of traditional systems of cooperation.

If you would like to join the lunch, please send an email no later than 6 Feb 2026 to: yafa [dot] shanneik [at] ctr [dot] lu [dot] se (yafa[dot]shanneik[at]ctr[dot]lu[dot]se)

The event is co-organised by CMES and CTR at Lund University. The project Doing good, growing strong: Catalysing economic and social impact in Jordan is funded by the British Academy’s ODA International Interdisciplinary Research Programme. Award Reference: OIIRP230329.