Social Enterprise: Implications of Emerging Institutionalized Constructions

In contemporary discourse social enterprise is often described as a new and innovative phenomenon aiming to solve current challenges of the welfare state. However, social enterprise can also be seen as a complex set of discourses within an institutionally constructed narrative designed to build identity and gain legitimacy. Using theoretical frameworks from neo-institutionalism in a critical discourse analysis the concept of social enterprise is here analyzed discursively both at a policy level and at the practitioner's level in contemporary Scandinavian discourse. Whilst the latter discourses conceptualize social enterprise as a method to empower marginalized individuals or disadvantaged groups, the findings show that the discourses outlined at a policy level primarily talk of social enterprise as being a solution to structural issues across society. Policy discourses suggest that focal actors within social enterprises are supposed to change and to be disciplined in order to address their social difficulties, rather than to be empowered. This paper suggests that the discourses around social enterprise not only embody solutions to social ills, but may also exert an influence over the governance of social enterprises and over their work.