Social economy and social enterprise: an emerging alternative to mainstream market economy?

Abstract

The social policy agenda will be marked by an ageing population on a global scale and by increased and diversified expectations from citizens in the need of work and social service in the decades to come. Public budgets for social service such as health, education and welfare including social work practice will be put under increasing pressure. There is a difference between a social economy approach to the third sector and an approach based upon the notion of a non-profit constraint. Social economy is well positioned as a third sector to play a core role in meeting this urgency. But how does the social economy fit with current strategies in the areas of welfare policies and social service? Is it as a certain type of social entrepreneurship an integral part of a social innovation of the mainstream market economy or is it part of an emerging counter discourse in the sense of a participatory non-capitalist economy in the area of social service and social innovation? This paper will define social economy in relation to third sector, and argue that it must be seen as a distinct type of social practice as well as being inter-related to social enterprise and social entrepreneurship.