Social Enterprise: Implications of Emerging Institutionalized Constructions

Abstract

In contemporary discourse social enterprise is often described as a new and innovative phenomenon aiming to solve current challenges of the welfare state. However, social enterprise can also be seen as a complex set of discourses within an institutionally constructed narrative designed to build identity and gain legitimacy. Using theoretical frameworks from neo-institutionalism in a critical discourse analysis the concept of social enterprise is here analyzed discursively both at a policy level and at the practitioner's level in contemporary Scandinavian discourse. Whilst the latter discourses conceptualize social enterprise as a method to empower marginalized individuals or disadvantaged groups, the findings show that the discourses outlined at a policy level primarily talk of social enterprise as being a solution to structural issues across society. Policy discourses suggest that focal actors within social enterprises are supposed to change and to be disciplined in order to address their social difficulties, rather than to be empowered. This paper suggests that the discourses around social enterprise not only embody solutions to social ills, but may also exert an influence over the governance of social enterprises and over their work.

Key Words:

• Social enterprise
• innovation
• discourse
• neo-institutionalism
• disciplinary power

Notes

1. www.tillvaxtverket.se (my translation).

2. According to Hasenfeld (1983, p. 1) any organization ‘whose principal function is to protect, maintain or enhance the personal well-being of individuals by defining, shaping, or altering their personal attributes’ can be defined as a Human Service Organization (HSO).

3. Nutek, is since 1 April 2009 called Tillväxtverket. As the documents referred to in this paper were published under the authority's time as ‘Nutek’, this name will still be used in this paper.

4. The Swedish title: Programföslag för fler och växande sociala företag (Nutek 2008a).

5. Arbetsförmedlingen (in Swedish).

6. Försäkringskassan (in Swedish) is the authority, which handles the national social insurance system in Sweden.

7. Socialstyrelsen.

8. Socialt företagande – en väg till arbetsmarknaden[Social enterprising – a way to the labor market] (Nutek 2005).

9. … as described for instance in SOU 2007:2, p. 220.

10. Coompanion (in Swedish).

11. Arbetslivsinstitutet (in Swedish).

12. In Swedish the report is titled Sociala arbetskooperativ – funktionshindrades möjligheter till arbete genom sociala arbetskooperativ. Strukturella förutsättningar i Sverige, Storbritannien och Italien.

13. The term ‘folkhem’ (in English: people's home) is a concept that was coined in the 1930s by the Swedish social democracy. It refers to a national political vision to of an all-embracing Swedish welfare state. During the last decades the idea has been criticized for being too controlling and detailed in regulating its welfare-citizens. Translated into English, the concept would be ‘the people's home’.

14. ‘Karins Döttrar gör skillnad’ (article, signed by ‘M C, 39 years old – since the summer of 2004 one of Karin's Daughters’).