Social enterprise in Latin America: theory, models and practice

In the absence of a widely accepted and common definition of social enterprise (SE), a large research project, the "International Comparative Social Enterprise Models" (ICSEM) Project, was carried out over a five-year period; it involved more than 200 researchers from 55 countries and relied on bottom-up approaches to capture the SE phenomenon. This strategy made it possible to take into account and give legitimacy to locally embedded approaches, thus resulting in an analysis encompassing a wide diversity of social enterprises, while simultaneously allowing for the identification of major SE models to delineate the field on common grounds at the international level. These SE models reveal or confirm an overall trend towards new ways of sharing the responsibility for the common good in today's economies and societies. We tend to consider as good news the fact that social enterprises actually stem from all parts of the economy. Indeed, societies are facing many complex challenges at all levels, from the local to the global level. The diversity and internal variety of SE models are a sign of a broadly shared willingness to develop appropriate although sometimes embryonic--responses to these challenges, on the basis of innovative economic/business models driven by a social mission. In spite of their weaknesses, social enterprises may be seen as advocates for and vehicles of the general interest across the whole economy. Of course, the debate about privatisation, deregulation and globalised market competition--all factors that may hinder efforts in the search for the common good-has to be addressed as well. The second of a series of four ICSEM books, Social Enterprise in Latin America will serve as a key reference and resource for teachers, researchers, students, experts, policy makers, journalists and other categories of people who want to acquire a broad understanding of the phenomena of social enterprise and social entrepreneurship as they emerge and develop across the world.

National overviews of social enterprise -- Social- and solidarity-economy organisations in Argentina : diversity, models and perspectives / Gonzalo Vázquez -- Bolivian cooperative and community enterprises : economic and political dimensions / Fernanda Wanderley -- Brazilian social enterprises : historical roots and converging trends / Adriane Ferrarini, Luiz Inácio Gaiger, Marília Veríssimo Veronese and Paulo Cruz Filho -- Social- and solidarity-economy organisations in Chile : concepts, historical trajectories, trends and characteristics / Michela Giovannini and Pablo Nachar-Calderón, with the contribution of Sebastián Gatica -- Popular and solidarity economy in ecuador : historical overview, institutional trajectories and types of organisation / María-José Ruiz-Rivera and Andreia Lemaître -- Social enterprise in Mexico : origins, models and perspectives / Sergio Páramo-Ortiz -- A legal approach to the social and solidarity economy in Mexico / Carola Conde Bonfil and Leïla Oulhaj -- Definition and models of social enterprise in peru / María Angela Prialé and Susy Caballero -- Comparative analysis and perspectives across Latin America countries -- Social enterprise in Latin America : patterns and historical relevance / Luiz Inácio Gaiger and Fernanda Wanderley -- Social enterprise as a tension field : a historical and theoretical contribution based on the sociology of absences and emergences / Jean-Louis Laville, Genauto Carvalho de França Filho, Philippe Eynaud and Luciane Lucas Dos Santos -- Latin American se models in a worldwide perspective / Jacques Defourny, Marthe Nyssens and Olivier Brolis -- Index.