Giulia Galera

This essay analyzes the characteristics and the role of social enterprises in CEE and CIS countries. Following a brief introduction on the relevance of institutional pluralism for economies characterized by poorly developed markets and welfare systems under construction, the importance of social enterprise for those countries is emphasized. Starting from a definition of social enterprise grounded in the European tradition,

La recente condanna in primo grado dell’ex sindaco di Riace Mimmo Lucano e dei suoi collaboratori ha lasciato senza parole sia chi il tema dell’accoglienza lo ha nel cuore, sia chi il fenomeno migratorio e l’impatto sociale ed economico dell’accoglienza e dell’integrazione li ha studiati attraverso ricerche sul campo. Di qui sorge spontanea una domanda: come e in che misura è possibile innovare nel complesso campo dell’accoglienza e dell’integrazione dei migranti senza esporsi al rischio di essere accusati di peculato, turbativa d’asta o favoreggiamento dell’immigrazione clandestina? Se è di inclusione autentica che vogliamo parlare, non andrebbe forse detto fuori dai denti che sono queste stesse regole, pensate per garantire un’accoglienza tampone, frutto di un approccio per lo più securitario ed emergenziale, ad aver fatto il loro tempo? L’articolo approfondisce in particolar modo alcune caratteristiche intrinseche al sistema di accoglienza italiano Si sottolinea, da un lato, come...

This collection of essays highlights how given Alpine territories in Austria, Italy, and Switzerland are currently facing challenges imposed by migration, the barriers and limitations they are encountering, and the extent to which migration triggers policy and territorial innovations that can generate beneficial impacts for both migrants and local inhabitants. Contributors here include practitioners and social workers who have experimented with innovative reception and integration pathways, as well as researchers with diverse disciplinary backgrounds, including geographers, sociologists, political scientists, social anthropologists, economists, and legal experts. The book draws on empirical and theoretical investigations, research actions implemented within the framework of large EU projects, and exploratory case studies and storylines of welcoming reception initiatives. It will appeal to practitioners, social scientists, and policy makers interested in both understanding the determinants that affect migrant exclusion and inclusion in Alpine territories and developing reception and integration initiatives of advantage to both sides when hosting asylum seekers in mountain areas

This study explores the social enterprise phenomenon in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Despite recording rapid economic growth, these countries are afflicted by pockets of poverty, severe inequality and social exclusion. The study focuses on the following countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia (new EU member states); Macedonia and Serbia (the Balkans); and Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine (CIS countries).

This study explores the social enterprise phenomenon in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Despite recording rapid economic growth, these countries are afflicted by pockets of poverty, severe inequality and social exclusion. The study focuses on the following countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia (new EU member states); Macedonia and Serbia (the Balkans); and Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine (CIS countries).

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the evolution of the social enterprise concept at an international level. It provides a comprehensive overview of the existing literature in this subject area and focuses on the legal implementation of social enterprises.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is an analytic review, building on previous work. Conclusions are on how the social enterprise concept has been legally implemented in a number of representative European countries.FindingsThe lack of a common understanding of social enterprise should not be regarded as a limitation as such debate encourages a rethinking of the theoretical definition of enterprise and its legal structure. The legal recognition of social enterprise contributes to conceptual clarification in the countries concerned.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a conceptual discussion paper, which stimulates further research on the most interesting mechanisms and consistent models of social enterprise that a...

First, it clearly appears that beyond the diversity of conceptions and labels used to identify such third sector, the latter has gained economic significance in terms of employment and production. This growth is especially apparent in services provision. Because of differences in border definition, there are no universally accepted measures of the sector's economic weight. But although its importance remains modest in some countries (in particular in the new EU member states), it represents, according to some figures, more than 10 per cent of ...

Over the past decades, new types of co-operatives with declared social goals have emerged in several countries in and outside Europe. Their development is above all connected to the engagement of co-operatives in the supply of general-interest services, which are carried out beyond the ‘boundaries’ of the co-ops’ membership, undermining the traditional model of co-operatives based on a single stakeholding system and on identifying members and users, and being ready to have additional bearers of interests sharing the duties and benefits of the organization. Drawing on selected country studies, this chapter focuses on new types of co-operatives with declared social goals, often turning into important providers of welfare and general-interest services and facilitators of work integration, which contribute to local development significantly. Selected countries where co-operatives have institutionalized their concern for community so as to pursue explicit general interest aims include It...

"The understanding of the current size, scope and state of social enterprises in Europe lags behind their proliferation and the rising interest they generate among policymakers, researchers and practitioners. Aware of this gap, the European Commission launched two mapping studies as follow-ups to its 2011 communication on the Social Business Initiative (SBI). The first study was conducted in 2014 and mapped social enterprise activity and ecosystems in 29 countries using a common definition and approach. Following this initial effort, an update was launched in seven selected countries in 2016, until a complete update of the 28 Member States plus seven neighbouring countries participating in the Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) Programme was carried out in 2018-2020. The resulting updated mapping study covers (i) the historical background and conditions of the emergence of social enterprises; (ii) the evolution of the concept and the existing national policy and legal framework for social enterprise; (iii) the scale and characteristics of social enterprise activity; (iv) networks and mutual support mechanisms; v) research, education and skills development; and (vi) the resources available to social enterprises. The study also provides insights on the factors constraining the development of social enterprise, a reflection on the debate currently at play in national contexts, and an overview of possible developmental trends. A stakeholders’ engagement strategy aimed at capturing insights and analysis stemming from various agents within the ecosystem was carried out as well as an indepth review of academic and grey literature and national policy documents regarding social enterprise. A specific comparative effort is reflected in the present synthesis report, which goes beyond the observation of social enterprise in each country to identify transnational trends with a view to generating solid knowledge to inform EU, national and local policies and social enterprises to stimulate mutual learning and to inspire common agendas. "

The authors analyze the link between two distinct phenomena that are increasingly related in Italian Alpine localities: tourism development and foreign immigration. Special attention is paid to asylum seekers, who have gradually started to repopulate mountain localities, following the policy decision to distribute migrants across the whole national territory. After an introductory analysis, the article focuses on two good practices of welcome initiatives that, while experimenting innovative social inclusion strategies in the tourism domain, have managed to overcome the emergency rationale that inspires most reception policies. Thanks to their embeddedness in local communities, the selected organizations have restored mountain trails, revitalized mountain agriculture through innovative crops and committed to the promotion of a welcome culture through sensitization activities. Based on the good practices investigated, the authors’ hypothesis is that some of the “forced highlanders” co...

ABSTRACT Social cooperatives are the most widespread social enterprise type in Italy. Their evolution has stimulated the development of diverse interpretative frameworks of social enterprise determinants: the mainstream one is that social cooperatives are the outcome of contracting out policies. Through a critical investigation of social cooperatives’ emergence, integration into public policies, and reaction to the financial crisis, the authors refocus attention to one of the key modes of creation of social enterprises that has not gained the attention it deserves: the bottom-up dynamic. The analysis carried out sheds light on the contribution of citizens’ mobilization to institutional change and confirms that social enterprises can also emerge in an unprepared and hostile ideological, economic and political context.

The collected volume edited by Peter Utting with chapters by Suzanne Bergeron, Stephen Healy, Carina Millstone, Benedicte Fonteneau, Georgina Gomez, Marguerite Mendell, Paul Nelson, John-Justin McMurtry, Cecilia Rossel, Abhijit Ghosh, Ananya Mukherjee-Reed, JeanLouis Laville, Justine Nannyonjo, Bina Agarwal, Beatrice Alain, Cristina Grasseni, Francesca Forno, Silvana Signori, Darryl Reed, Roldan Muradian, Jose Luis Coraggio and Milford Bateman critically analyses the vast and diversified field of action of the social and solidarity economy, paying particular attention to its determinants and challenges. Unlike other contributions, the book has the merit of adopting a non-ideological approach intended to evidence the tensions and contradictions inherent in the growth and expansion of the social and solidarity economy. It is consequently essential reading for those interested in understanding the bottom-up dynamics driven by groups of citizens concerned to promote a more inclusive and democratic economy. The book is therefore addressed to a plurality of readers, including practitioners in the field of international cooperation, researchers, activists, and policymakers.

ABSTRACT Over the past decades, social enterprises have been acknowledged as key welfare actors in several EU countries. In spite of the dramatic research devoted to exploring them, several issues concerning the definition, drivers and roles played by policies in sustaining social enterprise growth are still highly contested. Drawing on the papers published in this Monographic section, the introduction to this issue reconstructs the debate that has accompanied the emergence and development of social enterprises with a view to providing evidence of the advantages of collective participation for social enterprise emergence and growth. Next, the introduction pays attention to the factors that have led to the emergence and success of social enterprises as a form of self-organization of civil society; and briefly describes the papers included in this issue.

Abstract This article has two objectives: to clarify the organizational and managerial differences between social entrepreneurship and social enterprises and to investigate the role of social enterprises and their impacts on the welfare systems of European countries. The authors describe social entrepreneurship as a trend across all forms of enterprises and social enterprise as the institutionalization of a new typology that is distinguished by specific features from its inception. By relying on a theoretical analysis, the article supports the interpretation of social enterprise as an innovative institutional tool that can have a role in supporting growth and welfare. The essential features of social enterprise, which justify their competitiveness vis-a-vis public and for-profit organizations in the production and delivery of general-interest services, are thoroughly investigated. The article sheds light on the contribution of social enterprises to reforming and democratizing the traditional European welfare systems, which – since the 1980s – have revealed their inability to distribute welfare services inclusively and cope with the growing phenomena of poverty and inequalities.

The European social model has always been characterized by the active role played in the production of goods and services by a variety of organizations that differ both from private corporations and public institutions. These are private organizations that, while active on the market, typically pursue goals other than profit: their main purpose is not to generate financial gains for their owners or stakeholders but to provide goods and services either to their members or to the community at large. Traditionally, these organizations have been included in the concept of “social economy”. This paper describes the role of social enterprises and social cooperatives as a type of economic, non-profit organization that is assuming an increasingly central role in Europe (as shown for example by the Social Business Initiative, recently launched by the European Commission), by contributing to its economic and social growth. More generally, the paper intends to reflect on the economic and social impacts of social enterprises and social cooperatives in local economies, while some final remarks conclude by identifying some lessons supplied by Italian social cooperatives on a broader scale.

This study explores the social enterprise phenomenon in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Despite recording rapid economic growth, these countries are afflicted by pockets of poverty, severe inequality and social exclusion. The study focuses on the following countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovenia (new EU member states); Macedonia and Serbia (the Balkans); and Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine (CIS countries).