Local meanings of social enterprise. A historical-particularist view on hybridity of organizations

Abstract

Hybridity is a widely used concept for framing social enterprising as the combination of business and social welfare. By comparing two work integration enterprises from Glasgow and Vienna, this article sheds light on the locally constituted meaning of hybridity in Scotland and Austria. Many organizations comfortably fit into a formal, synchronic and isolated interpretation of hybridity, while in-depth-analysis often shows that organizations have a strong unbalance between their social and economic rationale. This discussion over real versus false hybridity of organizations inaccurately places notions of social and economic value in absolute terms, whereas we argue that their meaning is negotiated locally. The middle ground between profit and altruism is shifting due to particular, historically evolved institutions, markets, actors and welfare regimes.