Social entrepreneurship: the new narrative for the practice of the social economy

Abstract

In recent years, the notion of social entrepreneurship and its manifest linkage with the economic development and social change has quickly gained prominence in the general discourse of academics and policymakers. A social justification or motive is a key issue in the account for its existence. In this sense, the expression “social entrepreneurship” is being utilized to describe what has been traditionally known as practices of social economy. However, differences in what is understood as “social” can be observed in both areas. The purpose of this article is to examine and compare the ideas that underlie and operate in the current narratives of social entrepreneurship with those implicit in the traditional rhetoric in the context of social economy. The main results show a wider conception of the term “social” within the discourse of social entrepreneurship than in the social economy area.Social entrepreneurship, social economy, narrative, story.