ABSTRACT
The potential of social economy in fostering social inclusion is well recognized, and social economy has a great capacity to create employment, enhance social co-operation, and generate sustainable growth, well-being, and prosperity. Social economy deals with the global challenges in the environment, care, education, welfare, food, and energy and thus contributes to social development. In recent decades the problem of the social economy has gained in importance in a political, legal, and economic sense in European Union countries. In Poland social economy has deep roots, and the historical perspective dates back to the nineteenth century. The phenomenon of social capital was present in Polish public discourse since its revival after the collapse of communism, but the most dynamic and structural changes have been associated with the Polish accession to the European Union.
The main aim of this chapter is to shed light on the Polish case and to assess the potential of the social economy sector in Poland and its contribution in promoting social inclusion in Poland since joining the European Union. Therefore the national conditions in the area of legislations and strategic policy both at the national and regional level have been considered, and the structure of the social economy sector is examined. In this context the study was based on the policy level, and the so-called top-down perspective was used. At the same time, in order to present the importance of the social economy entities for regional labour markets and their impact on social inclusion, the empirical model ‘need-opportunity-output’ was created based on the ‘bottom-up’ perspective.
