Exploring Governance Among Social Co-Operatives: Three Models From Poland
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.ss.90.4.14257Abstract
There has been overly interest regarding social enterprise and social entrepreneurship in theory and practice. In this paper the author introduces the workings of governance of small social enterprises i.e. social co-operatives, acting in most cases for the purpose of work and social integration of the marginalized, at the bottom of the pyramid of socio-economic system. The aim of this paper is to provide insights into under researched topic of governance among social co-operatives, which have become a unique breed in social enterprise and co-operative landscape in Poland since 2007. Having collected vast amount of data through in-depth interviews with social co-operative members and founders, observation, and participation to the meetings in organizations supporting social enterprise in Pomeranian province[1], the author employs descriptive and exploratory case analysis of 5 social co-operatives. Because of the space constraints only selected data are presented in the paper. The author proposes three models of social co-operative governance types: ‘small democratic community’, ‘business providing jobs’ and ‘integrated family like’.
