Public Policies and Work Integration Social Enterprises: An International Perspective

This proposal is based on a sample of country analyses, prepared under the framework of the International Comparative Social Enterprise Models project (ICSEM). A central aim of ICSEM is to compare social enterprise models across the world. One particular field of Social Enterprise - WISEs or Work Integration Social Enterprises - has become increasingly recognised as being emblematic of the dynamics of social enterprises and now constitutes a major sphere of their activity globally. The major objective of WISEs is to integrate the disabled and other disadvantaged groups, including the long-term unemployed, back into the labour market and society through a productive activity. Relations between WISEs and public policies are a key issue explored in each of the papers of the panel. Historical analysis shows that civil society has contributed to the development of public polices and that these policies, in turn, have shaped the types of social enterprises (SEs) that emerged at a country level, in particular WISEs, the central focus of this panel (Nyssens, 2006). WISEs are shown to be pioneers in promoting the integration of excluded persons through a productive activity and incrementally have evolved as a tool for implementing national labor market policies (Spear, Defourny, Favreau, Laville, 2001). However, the extent to which WISEs are recognized and incorporated into welfare state policy varies across countries and the dialogue between them has not always been smooth. Indeed, the nature of the accommodation between the views of WISEs and those of public bodies on the contested nature of WISEs’ mission is not always easy.. WISE are usually viewed as multiple-goal organizations; they mix social goals, connected to their specific mission to benefit the community (the integration of people excluded from the labor market through productive activity but also in some cases other goals linked to community development such as supply of services to elderly people, children and recycling goods); economic goals, related to their entrepreneurial nature; and socio-political goals, given that many SEs are rooted in a “sector” traditionally involved in socio-political action. However, public policies used by WISEs now shape (at least partially) their objectives and practices narrowing their role to that of a tool of active labor market policy. Competitive pressures also shape their behavior as WISEs sell their products in markets where they are in competition with profit-making enterprises. The panel explores how populations of WISEs in different country contexts have emerged and shifted in their identities over time in relation to changing public policies at the national level. These country-based articles will provide an illustration of the historical development of the sector at a country level, the relationship of WISEs with national policy processes, and some of the main challenges and successes of the secto