Las empresas sociales: ¿nuevas formas de Economía Social en la creación de servicios y empleos?

Since the 1990s we have witnessed how the notion of “social enterprises” has emerged in most European countries under the combined pressure of a growth in the need for people and in the need for jobs. These new enterprises generally take the form of associations or cooperatives, which are encouraged by Spanish and European public policies as they are considered to be “new sources of employment” and sources of “social cohesion”. In the changes undergone by Western societies, the rising number of these “social” enterprises resulting from the development of the economic activity brought about by voluntary organizations in order to provide services to the community, shows that the old distinction between market activities, carried out by cooperatives, and non-market activities, carried out by mutual societies and associations, is becoming increasingly irrelevant.