Hope for sustainable development: Social entrepreneurs make it happen.

Introduction
The massive scale on which social problems are conceived precludes
innovative action because bounded rationality is exceeded and dysfunctional levels
of arousal are induced (Weick 1984: 40).
Five years into the new millennium, we still cannot escape being confronted with
social, environmental, political and economic problems on a scale that seems overwhelming
in the sense of Weick’s statement. The emotional drama caused by pictures of war,
terrorism, natural catastrophes that caught their victims unprepared, the hungry and the
diseased – pictures that refuse to disappear from our daily newspapers and TV screens –
may indeed promote resignation, or a feeling of hopelessness and powerlessness. At the
same time, important decisions need to be made about how to address socioeconomic
challenges at a global level. This includes issues such as global warming, elimination of
poverty, and allocation of funds to education, economic development and technological
innovation. The aim is to balance economic growth and social development for all with the
ability of the natural environment to sustain human life on this planet. To achieve this,
international organizations are striving to define frameworks that enable local actions to
result in a form of global sustainable development (SD). Corporations are expected to
identify and develop future growth markets and to allocate resources to the creation of new
business models that will serve the needs of billions of low-income customers. Citizens are
asked to support national policies that increase the spending of tax money on development
efforts and, at the same time, reduce public debts to lower the constraints on future
generations.