ABSTRACT

This chapter analyses the various perspectives on the concept of social enterprise (SE) as well as the different SE models existing in Spain. It presents the context and the main concepts related to the SE phenomenon in the country, and identifies and describes models of SE. In Spain, the term “social enterprise” has historically been linked to the organisations that promoted the social and labour integration of persons at risk of social and labour exclusion and other similar social activities. At the beginning of the 1980s, different social organisations that had launched special programmes of training and labour integration, focusing on excluded people or people at risk of exclusion, experienced difficulties with regard to the subsequent social integration of their trainees. The term “social enterprise” is still underused in Spain, and a debate still exists regarding its definition.