Similarities and differences in social enterprise: Emmaus The Swedish experience: social enterprise in a welfare state

• Emmaus is a global social economy and social enterprise organization, which has clear origins in France with Abbe Pierre after World War 2 (Boris, 1955). Today the organization is established in every continent of the world with over 400 Emmaus communities in 37 countries. It is variously represented as a homeless organisation, a political movement and a trading entity. However, created in France in a particular context, there are some differences between the ways the movement has developed and perhaps these have been set out in a comparison of Emmaus France and Emmaus in the UK (Amintas & Murdock 2009). This paper will form part of the Emmaus panel, with the aim to explore the organizational evolution and governance of Emmaus in Sweden following the framework already generated by Amintas and Murdock (2009) and extend it to consider, compare and analyze the nature of Emmaus in the respective countries. Sweden as a northern model welfare state does not have the variations in wealth found in Southern European countries. The focus on indigenous homeless is less relevant and the Emmaus model has a greater focus on international solidarity. Similarly the economic impact focus found in the UK is potentially less applicable in the Swedish context (Lovatt et al 2003). Using a mixture of published data and case study based information gathered on Emmaus in Sweden, the paper will examine the governance and operation of Emmaus in an advanced welfare state and identify to what extent the Swedish context might be associated with a variation of the model from the original concept enunciated by Abbe Pierre in France. It will also draw on government policy and the way in which Emmaus in Sweden has operated at international, national and local levels. Further, political, economic and socio-cultural (including religious) constructs as intervening variables will be used in the comparison. The approach is to consider governance as the result of “governing” a dynamic and synthetic movement, which has to maintain organizational continuity and adaptation. Therefore, three steps for the research is proposed on the experience of “Emmaus” in a Swedish perspective: 1A genealogical perspective on the governance model: Its particular application to a social economy setting and the core value set of Emmaus 2Intervening variables - the political, economic, socio-cultural and religious national contexts 3An interpretative framework: governance, identity and legitimacy in the context of the intervening variables It is hypothesized that though the core values of Emmaus will be found in Sweden there are significant differences in evolution, organization and governance, which derive from the particular context of the Swedish welfare state. The findings will be used to compare and analyze the evolution, governance and orientation of Emmaus in five various countries of Europe (UK, Italy, Spain, France and Sweden).

Nyckelord

social enterprise

governance

legitimacy

comparision

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)