Social Enterprise: At the Crossroads of Market, Public Policies and Civil Society

Citation

Williams, C.C. (2007), "Social Enterprise: At the Crossroads of Market, Public Policies and Civil Society", Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Vol. 1 No. 3, pp. 286-287. https://doi.org/10.1108/17506200710779585

This book is a welcome and very useful addition to the rapidly growing caucus of knowledge on social enterprises. It is a comparative European analysis of social enterprises within a multi‐disciplinary framework grounded in primary data collected from 160 social enterprises and 949 workers across 11 European countries. All of the contributors are members of the EMES European Research network and the focus is upon work integration social enterprises (WISEs) whose objective is to help disadvantaged unemployed people, who are at risk of permanent exclusion from the labour market, to be re‐integrated back into work and society in general through productive activity.

The book is divided into four parts. The first two parts are focused on the rationales of social enterprises embedded in a detailed analysis of the 162 enterprises studied in Europe. The third part analyses the sample of WISE participants. Finally, the role of public policies is the focus of Part IV. In each part, several chapters are dedicated to transversal European analyses which are supplemented by shorter chapters focusing on specific countries that reflect the diversity of social enterprise patterns and welfare models across Europe.

To commence, Part I explores the governance of social enterprise and explores a “multiple goals/multiple stakeholders” hypothesis. In Chapter 2, the specific objectives WISEs pursue and the role of stakeholders within them is explored. More specific insights into this twofold dimension of WISEs are then investigated with reference to Danish social enterprises by Hulgard (Chapter 3), French social enterprises by Bucolo (Chapter 4) and Italian social enterprises by Borzaga and Loss. As social capital can be seen as not only a resource but also a goal of social enterprise, Hulgard and Spear in Chapter 6 analyse its key role for social entrepreneurship through an institutional perspective based on the premise that social capital must be examined in the context of changing institutional configurations.

Part II then turns its attention to how social enterprises mix different kinds of resources to sustain their multiple goals. Gardim in Chapter 7 invites us to move beyond the approach whereby these enterprises are seen to mobilize only two types of resource (market resources and non‐market resources from the public sector). According to Gardim, European social enterprises use a complex mix of resources based on four types of economic relations: the market, redistribution, but also the socio‐political embedded market and reciprocity. More specific analyses of the resource mix of WISEs are then investigated with reference to Irish WISEs by O'Shaughnessy in Chapter 8, Spanish WISEs by Vidal and Claver in Chapter 9 and Finnish social enterprises by Pattiniemi in Chapter 10.

Given that the major objective of WISEs is to integrate people who are at risk of permanent exclusion from the labour market back into work, and society in general, through productive activity, Part III focuses on the analysis of data collected regarding the 949 disadvantaged workers who entered European WISEs in 2001. Borzaga and Loss in Chapter 11 examine the profiles of these workers with a particular focus on their employment experience and on the channels of entry to social enterprises, along with their integration paths. This flow analysis reveals the personal situation of these workers, particularly in terms of income and human capital. Country analyses regarding the trajectories of beneficiaries are then provided for Portugal by Perista and Nogueira in Chapter 12, Sweden by Stryjan in Chapter 13 and Belgium by Nyssens and Platteau in Chapter 14.

The field of social enterprises has been characterised by a movement of institutionalization in the framework of pubic policies across Europe, which varies from one nation to another. In Part IV, the hypothesis is explored that this dynamic of institutionalisation can lead to the development of innovative public schemes and also a movement of “isomorphism” on the part of social enterprises. Bode, Evers and Schultz in Chapter 15 develop an analytical framework to understand the historical dynamics and possible trends toward isomorphism in this field. Aiken develops this in relation to UK social enterprises in Chapter 16 and Laville, Lemaitre and Nyssens show in Chapter 17 how public policies in the field of social enterprise are the result of interactions between the promoters of the latter and the representatives of public bodies. They also very usefully provide a typology of different models of public policy towards social enterprises across Europe. In Chapter 18, Bode, Evers and Schultz then analyse the historic dynamic between social enterprise and public policies in Germany. In the concluding Chapter 19, Nyssens then draws together the lessons regarding the research and develops some guidelines useful to policy makers.

Should you buy this book? The resounding answer is yes. It is the most up‐to‐date and comprehensive guide to social enterprise in Europe so far produced with many lessons for those studying social enterprise elsewhere in the world. Unlike many edited volumes which are too often composed of chapters randomly and artificially collated with little or no resonance or relationship between them, this edited volume is an exemplar of what such a volume should look like. It is strongly edited, has a clear line of thought running through it and a high degree of resonance between the chapters that leads to a compelling and detailed narrative that no one author alone could possibly assemble alone. Indeed, the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. Without doubt, this is a major contribution to the ongoing debates on the role of social enterprise in Europe and beyond and a “must read” for anybody interested in such issues.