Exploring the Multiple Facets of the Belgian Social Enterprise Landscape
(2021) Social Enterprise in Western Europe : Theory, Models and Practice — ISBN: [9780367151188], published
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- Over the last two decades, the notion of social enterprise (SE) has increasingly gained visibility in the Belgian landscape. Nevertheless, unlike more established notions such as the social economy and the non-profit sector, social enterprise is still a fuzzy and debated notion in Belgium. Some use this term as a synonym for social-economy organisations. Others refer to any business focusing on generating social impact, regardless of its legal structure and governance practices. Still others use social enterprise to describe the entrepreneurial approach adopted by an increasing number of non-profit organisations. In this chapter, we build on the EMES Network's ideal type of social enterprise, which defines the economic and entrepreneurial dimension in a broad way, emphasising dynamics of production and risk taking rather than strict criteria in terms of market-based incomes, as is the case in other SE approaches (Defourny and Nyssens 2006; 2010). Such a view of social enterprise has affinities with the notion of "social economy" (Defourny 2001). In Belgium since 1990, the social economy has become increasingly recognised both in Flanders (the Northern, Dutch-speaking part) and in Wallonia (the Southern, French-speaking part). All regional governments now have a minister in charge of this domain (often with other spheres of competences). As a result of this recognition. various tools have been set up in the last ten years to provide social enterprises with credit facilities, securities and seed capital as well as technical support through dedicated consultancy agencies. However, in some cases, the concept tends to be understood in a quite narrow sense, due to its association with specific missions. In Flanders and in Brussels, as a competence of the Ministry of Labour, the social economy has often been associated only with the integration of low-skilled workers on the labour market. In Wallonia, as a competence of the Ministry of Economy, it has frequently been considered only in its more market-oriented version. This chapter is structured as follows: The first section reviews the main historical roots that have led to the emergence of a diversity of models related to social enterprise and the social economy in Belgium. The second section reviews the legal recognition of the concept and its evolution over time. The third section sketches how the main SE models, as observed internationally, find resonance in the Belgian context, and what these models imply in terms of building statistics. Finally, the conclusion sketches some of the main challenges lying ahead for social enterprises and their supporters in the Belgian context.
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Huybrechts, B., Nyssens, M., & Defourny, J. (2021). Exploring the Multiple Facets of the Belgian Social Enterprise Landscape. In Jacques Defourny, Marthe Nyssens (ed.), Social Enterprise in Western Europe : Theory, Models and Practice. Routledge. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/223480