ABSTRACT
The notion of a social enterprise brings together a wide range of socio-economic practices. Diffusion of the notion of social enterprises around the world has provided different and even conflicting interpretations, including Anglo-Saxon, classic European, Latin American and new European versions. The aim of analytical grid is to try to understand the conditions according to which the capacity to produce reconciliation between economic and social are indicated in the dynamics of the practice under analysis. The chapter examines each of the four notions (social businesses, the third sector, social economy and solidarity economy), applied to the Brazilian context in terms of reconciliation. It highlights the specifics of each notion and its capacity, or otherwise, to reconcile economic and social, and suggests that general conclusions about conditions for this reconciliation, according to different contexts. An effective tendency towards a reconciliation between economic and social can be observed in cases of solidarity economy.
