Social enterprises in Greece: Current trends, opportunities and challenges in a demanding socio-economic context

Almost four years after the introduction of the Greek law on social economy and social enterprises, and despite the fact that a national strategy to empower the development of social enterprises (SEs) soon coupled the new... [ view full abstract ]

Almost four years after the introduction of the Greek law on social economy and social enterprises, and despite the fact that a national strategy to empower the development of social enterprises (SEs) soon coupled the new legal framework, the relevant ecosystem seems still to be underdeveloped and rather fragmented. Moreover, while one might had thought that the socio-economic environment Greece is facing in the last years would had been ideal for the development of creative and innovative solutions to tackle unemployment and societal problems which increased during –and because of- the crisis, still social entrepreneurship has not yet managed to find its role as a promising alternative into a changing productive framework and within activities to cover acute social needs that the retreat of public welfare services has created.
This paper has set to explore the critical parameters that shaped the current picture of social entrepreneurship in Greece and identify where the strengths and opportunities lie in its future development steps. To this end the paper will develop in three levels: a) it will provide data on current social enterprises active in Greece and will seek to identify the dominant models that have been emerging; b) it will engage into a critical assessment of the law that governs SEs in order to explain how this process of institutionalization and legal recognition actually worked in the Greek case; and c) it will work to put forward the necessary lessons to be learned that could be useful in creating an enabling SEs community in Greece.