ABSTRACT
Among the host of activities supported by social enterprises, the integration of disadvantaged workers is the most widespread, and not only in places where unemployment is high or during times of economic crisis (Davister et al. 2004). Participation in the labour market is a crucial form of social integration through which individuals affirm their identities (Schmid 1998). As a defining feature of human existence, work is crucial to the welfare of families and to the stability of societies. Nevertheless, not all human beings have the same opportunities to work. Within the labour market, there are always individuals and groups whose characteristics-physical, social, or demographic-influence the extent to which they are able to participate (Smith and Twomey 2002). As such, exclusion from the labour market can be considered as one of the most important causes of social exclusion. In addition to criticism from an ethical and civic point of view, the failure to integrate all potentially productive workers is a source of inefficiency, since it wastes resources and generates additional costs (Borzaga et al. 2001). Against this background, there has been a growing recognition by governments and organizations of the economic burden placed on others by people excluded from the labour market (Yeo and Moore 2003). Given the goal of equal treatment in the labour force, specific policies have been adopted to ensure employment opportunities for disadvantaged workers. Despite their evolution over time, these policies have not proved to be satisfactory (Borzaga et al. 2001). Starting in the 1980s, new productive initiativesdefined as social enterprises-have developed bottom-up with the goal of supporting the full integration of disadvantaged workers into the labour market. The effectiveness of social enterprises stems from their capacity to provide an institutional response to the labour market’s incapacity to adequately allocate the available labour force. As such, a work integration social enterprise is an institutional mechanism of supported employment that favours workers discriminated against by conventional enterprises and provides them with appropriate on-the-job training to help them overcome their disadvantages (Borzaga 2007). The pioneering role of these enterprises is demonstrated by their early successes in implementing active labour market policies bottom-up before these policies became institutionalized and started to be adopted by public authorities (Defourny and Nyssens 2008).
