ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes an analytical framework that explains the complex relationship between social enterprises (SE) and their ecosystem. It argues that an enabling ecosystem gives SEs the power, means, opportunities, and authority to pursue their goals, and that the general objective of SEs is to contribute to Sustainable Human Development. The chapter highlights the connections between the capability approach and the enabling ecosystem concept. It offers a revised version of the sustainable territorial evolution for human development framework that can be applied to SEs and used to analyze the relationship between SEs and their ecosystem. The chapter focuses on such relationships and identifies the preliminary policy implications of using such a framework to analyze SE ecosystems. Territorial achieved functionings are the results achieved by the local area and its community. Collective agency in the form of social movements can alter the environment in which organizations operate.
