ABSTRACT
As hybrid entities that explicitly inhabit both social and economic domains, social enterprises pose new challenges and possibilities for local governance. In this chapter, we examine the ways in which locally focused social enterprises disrupt the rules in use within local government. Rather than responding to the more commonly asked question ‘what is the State’s influence on social enterprise?’ our purpose here is to examine the impacts of social enterprise on governmental institutions at the local level. Our analysis is based on qualitative research conducted in Victoria, Australia. We find that, in some instances, the hybrid nature of social enterprise facilitates ‘joining up’ across functional areas of local government and influences local governance through the reinterpretation of institutionalised public spaces.
