Proposal of alternative typology of social economy

Abstract

Due to the growing interest in the field of social economy and the increasing popularity of social entrepreneurship, these areas of theoretical knowledge and economical practice are constantly a subject of new analyses. The dominant classification of social enterprises is the division into the old and new social economy. These propositions do not cover all existing forms of social enterprises in Poland. The aim of the article is to present an alternative proposal of division in social economy focused on the social functions of its entities – social enterprises. The proposed solution serves to fulfil the dominant discourse of the social economy in new ways of thinking about the reasons and motivations connected with creating social enterprises. The proposed Matrix of social enterprises creates a possibility to describe (and understand better) the manifestations of this social and economic phenomenon. The presented conclusions were considered in the light of Piotr Sztompka’s social capital theory and the theory of social cost.