LAUSR

ABSTRACT This article illustrates how the British Council Bangladesh (BCB) made use of panel discussions and commissioned research as policy vehicles to persuade the government of Bangladesh of the value of social enterprises for public service delivery, including in education. Drawing upon Appadurai’s notion of ‘imagined worlds’ in relation to influential global processes of educational policy governance, we view support for social enterprises as an instance of the cultural formulation of policy that the BCB sought to enact/steer through a policy network. The social entrepreneurial future of policy and governance was ‘imagined’ by the network, even as this was negotiated and contested. Panel discussion and commissioned research served as key policy vehicles in modulating discourses and logics demonstrating social enterprise as an imperative culture of governance into the future. Comparison with various ‘successful’ reference societies/markets also helped frame social enterprises as fostering opportunities for youth and women.