ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a brief overview of the set of initiatives that correspond, in the Latin American context, to the ideal-typical concept of social enterprise as it has been defined by the EMES Network. In Latin America, organisations that are driven by a social mission preserve or create other types of economic rationalities than the pure capitalist narrow economic rationality. One of the causes of Latin American democratic fragility is the perpetuation of high concentrations of wealth in the hands of powerful elites, while a significant portion of the population lives in poverty and destitution. The brief characterisation helps to situate social-enterprise-like initiatives in recent times and to understand their role in strengthening formal and substantive democracy. The pattern comprises the forms of economic and social activity promoted and managed within territorially delimited communities and whose overarching logic depends on individuals and collectives belonging to these communities for ethnic or ancestral reasons.
