ABSTRACT
Organizations that aim to bring disadvantaged people (back) into ‘ordinary society’ through social business have become widespread across Western Europe. Historically, however, they appear as quite a recent societal phenomenon. It was not until the late 1970s that such ‘work integration social enterprises’ (WISEs) grew in number and variety, drawing on a diversity of traditions such as sheltered workshops, the co-operative movement, models of mutual self-help and social and charitable work carried out by associations. A major factor in the background to this evolution was the rising unemployment in Western Europe, together with a growing segmentation of labour markets and the experience of social exclusion. Key
sion and unmet societal needs through grassroots economic organizations in fields such as the recycling of goods, personal services and cultural work.
