Artur Steiner
Professor in Social Entrepreneurship and Community Development
Yunus Centre
Artur Steiner is a Professor in Social Entrepreneurship and Community Development. He leads the Community, Citizenship and Participation Research Group in the Yunus Centre at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), and is a member of the Centre’s Management Group. He is also a member of the GCU Business School Ethics Committee, GCU Equality and Diversity Champions Network, and GCU Engage Watermark Working Group.
Artur’s research activity is concerned with evidencing how – through social entrepreneurship and social innovation, entities, policies and co-production interventions – we might tackle social inequalities and address the vulnerability of specific groups in society. Specifically, his work focuses on those who are hard-to-reach and disadvantaged, and actions that lead to empowerment, enhanced participation and resilience for communities and individuals.
As a Principal and Co-Investigator, Artur has won multi-million-pound research grants from multi-agency sources. This funding has enabled the evaluation of national policies, public and third-sector initiatives, and their role in enhancing the wellbeing and prosperity of those in need. His work directly contributes to supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Artur’s work is multi-disciplinary and uses a multi-method research approach. One current project, the NIHR £1.5m CommonHealth Asset Project, assesses the sustainability and scalability of Community-Led Organisations. The T4VET Project, funded by the Forces in Mind Trust, explores the impact of a Work Integration Social Enterprise (WISE) on the long-term job prospects, work readiness, employability and mental health of veterans. Recently, Artur contributed to the ARC project evaluating the impact of online mental health forums on the wellbeing of rural populations. As a Principal Investigator, he has led evaluations of the Community Empowerment Act (Scotland) for the Scottish Government, the COOL-Music (Community Orientated Opportunity and Learning) Project funded by the European Social Fund, as well as the Sustainable Community Sheds Project funded by the Community Fund. He was also one of the research leads on the £1.8m Common Health Project – an MRC/ESRC-funded investigation into the role of social enterprise as a public health intervention. Furthermore, Artur has acted as Module Leader for one of the Scottish Government’s Strategic Research Programmes within the £1m theme of Vibrant Rural Communities, and as a researcher on the £1.5m EU-funded Older People for Older People (O4O) Project.
His research outputs span multiple disciplines, chiefly entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship, rural and community development, public policy and health-related social sciences. He has a strong track record of academic papers published in high-quality peer-reviewed journals. In addition, he is a member of the Editorial Boards of Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, the Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and Social Enterprise Journal. Currently, he is co-editing a new Emerald book: “Rural Entrepreneurship: harvesting ideas and sewing new seeds” and is organising the 20th Rural Entrepreneurship Conference.
Artur acts as a supervisor for a number of PhD students who explore themes of Social Enterprise and Social Entrepreneurship, Rurality, Community Development and Community Empowerment, Community Resilience, and Service Co-Production. He has also acted as a PhD examiner and a Module Leader for Global Social Entrepreneurship, part of the MSc in Social Innovation programme at GCU.