The Social and Solidarity Economy in France Faced with the Challenges of Social Entrepreneurship

This chapter aims to understand how social entrepreneurship has developed, to the point of competing with the notion of the ``social and solidarity economy'' (SSE). The approach adopted herein is based on the classic tools of public policy analysis, enabling the distinction of three phases. The first is that of the historical context, which, from the middle of the nineteenth century, corresponds to the institutionalization of the social and solidarity economy. The second began at the end of the twentieth century, when different stakeholders started to evoke the need for a renewal of the sector. In this context, the influence of the SSE seems to have declined, while other collective actors have increasingly emerged, carrying the banner of social entrepreneurship loudly and clearly. The third is the advent of social entrepreneurship on the political agenda, emerging with the economic crisis of 2008. Three different sequences\textemdash the Social Business Initiative launched by the European Commission in October 2011, the G8 Taskforce dedicated to social impact investment in June 2013, and finally the French law of July 31, 2014, devoted to SSE\textemdash can all be considered part of the same global configuration. In particular, the French legislation introduced a major rupture with tradition, since it provides commercial companies pursuing an aim of ``social utility'' and adopting a participatory governance with the possibility to integrate the social and solidarity economy. By interviewing ten actors of the sector\textemdash academics specialized in the field, social entrepreneurs, and policy makers\textemdash this research explores the effects of these changes, which for some specialists are necessary for the development of the sector, but which for others distort it by anchoring it even more strongly in a commercial context