ABSTRACT
The landscape of WISEs in Denmark is dominated by local community enterprises offering traineeship and temporary work integration (lokalt orienterede sociale virksomheder som tilbyder uddannelse og midlertidig beskœftigelse).1 The public sector and the third sector are absolutely dominant stakeholders in the 13 WISEs that make up the Danish sample, while the private sector plays a less significant role. Danish WISEs are both similar to and different from European social enterprises as they have been depicted in the PERSE study. On the one hand, Danish social enterprises fit the general European picture of social enterprises in that they have a strong entrepreneurial component, while remaining strongly embedded in the associative or cooperative world; indeed, most WISEs in the Danish sample were founded by local actors, often in close co-operation with third sector organizations. On the other hand, many Danish social enterprises distinguish themselves from most European WISEs as regards the extent of public sector involvement: Danish WISEs, though formally autonomous, are under pressure from public authorities, which often determine their objectives (Riis 2003).
