Social entrepreneurship is an emerging academic field generating a rapidly expanding literature on a growing range of topics. While the early stage of its development was nourished by many of the rich ideas developed within the "conventional" entrepreneurship literature, this is beginning to change as the community-based and societal entrepreneurship landscape has become a more fundamental part of the collection of entrepreneurship practices. Challenges still remain in forging effective and close relationships between academics, community groups and practitioners. This paper considers the way that the social entrepreneurship community, as a collective of academics and practitioners, is beginning to address this tension.