The theory of social enterprise and pluralism: Solidarity-type social enterprise

The international debate on social enterprise is at present mainly driven by English-language research. But there is also an important European contribution. Based on the results of surveys since the 1990s, the European network EMES (a European Association for Social Enterprise Research) has proposed an ideal type for social enterprise. It identifies nine characteristic criteria of social enterprises in economic, social and governance domains. However, the definition proposed by EMES has been influenced by North American research in some of its wording. For example, the political dimension is not approached directly but through the concept of governance. While the debate goes on, it is important to keep it inclusive by bringing in configurations of social enterprise coming from new realities in Europe and from outside Europe. The aim of this chapter is to work with data from Africa, South America, Asia and Europe and to create and ideal type of the solidarity social enterprise with an intercultural perspective. Such social enterprise will be defined in this text as solidarity type. The intent here is to enrich the mapping of social enterprise by approaching solidarity enterprise on the basis of nine criteria. The question is: does this new ideal type sharpen the terms defined in previous research by EMES, or is it a distinct approach?