A historical overview of social enterprises in Italy from a European perspective

Italy represents a particular case in the European context of social entrepreneurship as its actual legal framework, based on Law 381/1991 on social cooperatives and Legislative Decree 155/2006 on social enterprises, took root from an important and long tradition of cooperatives and many other third sector organizations (e.g. Misericordie, Pubbliche assistenze), inspired both from socialist and catholic principles. This paper has the general objective to present the distinctive circumstances and social needs which have led to the creation and spread of early social enterprises in the Italian context. Moreover, our research aims to contribute to the literature on historical, economic, cultural, institutional configurations and policy discourses that led to the current status of social enterprise in Italy and which could be the possible future pathways. Next years will be crucial for Italian social enterprises as the whole Italian third sector will be undergoing a process of legal reform that will radically change its structure and incentives; this paper also aims to shed light on this process of reform started in 2014 with the implementation of the draft law on the Third Sector Reform. The draft law foresees the following measures for social enterprises: redefinition of the social enterprise as a private enterprise with objectives of general interest, mandatory qualification as social enterprise, expansion of social utility sectors, possible remuneration for capital and profit sharing, rationalization of the categories of disadvantaged workers. An online literature search has been conducted for articles and conference papers on social enterprises, social innovation and social inclusion. In addition, further relevant information was gathered from interviews with national experts in the field of social economy and social entrepreneurship that provided us with a deeper knowledge of the Italian case and confirmed the outputs of our research.