Social enterprises and their ecosystems in Europe

Social enterprises present an alternative to business-as-usual with their combination of core social and environmental objectives being addressed through commercial approaches. In this way they present an alternative avenue for a sustainable prosperity that is not driven by profit but rather focused on flourishing and living within ecological limits. In the UK, there has been particular interest and support for the creation of start-ups and the scaling of existing social enterprises. The term social enterprise has been in use in the UK since the 1970s, and the current approaches are shaped by the philanthropic traditions of charities, the cooperative traditions of democratic governance, and cultures of socially responsible business. The UK social enterprise movement was given a boost by the pioneering public policies and approaches in the 1990s, including various support programmes, the introduction of a new legal form and investment funds. Since 2010 there has been a focus of policy on encouraging social investment funds and mutual social enterprise ‘spin-outs’ from the public sector. However, the context of public sector austerity has seen a considerable decline in overall spending across the UK in recent years, with the exception of Scotland