СОЦІАЛЬНА ЕКОНОМІКА: ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКА ТА СУБ’ЄКТИ

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the social economy as a response to the modern challenges of humanity and a way to overcome social, economic, and environmental issues. The scientific methods used for the research are generalization, analysis, synthesis, comparison, and systematization. This research examines all the social economy subjects whose activities help address the challenges of modern societies. The big emphasis of the study lies on the concept of corporate social responsibility, its primary objectives, and the various areas in which socially responsible business activities happen. The article summarizes the definition of corporate social responsibility and demonstrates its comparison with the concept of "shared value." One of the tasks of the paper is to explore characteristics of associations, public organizations, and foundations, highlighting the differences between the public and commercial sectors. In addition, the analysis summarizes and categorizes the different roles of such organiza-tions. This research also conducts a brief examination of public associations' activities in Ukraine and reveals the areas and problems of their activities. Various civil society organizations and the range of their activities are described. The activities classification of such organizations and their characteristics in Ukraine are presented. This article also reveals the aspects of cooperatives, including the Ukrainian context and their typology. The research explains why cooperatives often show greater re-silience and efficiency in crises than traditional enterprises. The most significant part of this study illustrates social enterprises – the most innovative phenomenon in the social economy. The purpose, role, features, and complexities of such organizations in Ukraine are revealed, and the main differences from other social economy agents are provided. Social enterprises probably are the most innovative agents of social economy and their impact fosters the development of the entire field. Summarizing the consideration of the phenomenon of social economy and functioning of this phenomenon in Ukraine, the article concludes its social and economic value to society.