ABSTRACT In this Special Issue, we hope to reframe the conversation about context and bring back context to the front and centre of our way of knowing and theorizing in the field of social entrepreneurship. We philosophize about context and then propose a typology of context in the field of social entrepreneurship (broadly defined) and identify domains of context that constitute existing and fertile areas for future research. We reflect on the six papers in this special issue in relation to our context typology and conclude with several points about their novel contributions to theory, practice and policy in social entrepreneurship.