ABSTRACT
This case study is concerned with the socially innovative role of a multi - dimensional community-owned enterprise providing for otherwise unmet social needs, in the sense that it offers activities to participants, and services to communities, which would not be supplied by the market. It offers insights into how this role has been carved out, and its relations with the local and wider context. In addition, it discusses the nature of ongoing dynamics, both internal and external – and how these affect the development and impacts of Arts Factory (AF). In doing so, it sheds light on the following questions: (1) How, in an area of intense policy intervention, can certain needs still go unmet? (2) How, in an area renowned for its socialist political acti vism, has effective disenfranchisement of much of the population occurred? (3) How do the processes of resource definition and combination affect inclusion and exclusion dynamics? (4) Why is a continuing innovation dynamic necessary?
