For its first research programme, the Network received support from the European Commission and formed a partnership with the European Confederation of Workers’ Co-operatives, Social Co-operatives and Participative Enterprises (CECOP). Researchers from the fifteen European Union member states analysed the emergence and growth of “ social enterprises ”, that is, initiatives which combine entrepreneurial dynamics and social objectives in an original way. Once they had built up a definition of social enterprise, EMES researchers concentrated on two fields in which these enterprises are very active, work integration and personal services. Joint working sessions were organised every six months to compare the results obtained in the different countries, and to gradually develop common theoretical frameworks.
The EMES project resulted in the publication of two major works:
- C. Borzaga and J. Defourny (eds.), The Emergence of Social Enterprise, Routledge, London, 2001, 386 p. [To order this publication, click here.]
- R. Spear, J. Defourny, L. Favreau et J.-L. Laville (eds), Tackling Social Exclusion in Europe. The Contribution of the Social Economy, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2001, 359 p. (in collaboration with the CIRIEC). [This publication is currently out of print]
Co-ordination: Jacques Defourny, Centre d’Economie Sociale, University of Liege, Belgium
Project partners:
- Steen Bengtsson, Danish National Institute for Social Research, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Carlo Borzaga, ISSAN, University of Trento, Italy
- Jacques Defourny, Centre d’Economie Sociale, University of Liège, Belgium
- Paul Delaunois, Co-Labor, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
- Adalbert Evers, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany
- Jean-Louis Laville, CRIDA, Paris, France
- Kai Leichsenring, European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research, Vienna, Austria
- Marthe Nyssens, CERISIS, Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
- Patricia O’Hara, Centre for Co-operative Studies, University College Cork, Ireland
- Pekka Pättiniemi, Institute for Co-operative Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland
- Heloísa Perista, CESIS, Lisbon, Portugal
- Piet Renooy, Regioplan, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Roger Spear, Co-ops Research Unit, Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
- Yohanan Stryjan, Södertörns Högskola, Huddinge, Sweden
- Isabel Vidal, CIES, Barcelona, Spain
- Dimitris Ziomas, National Centre for Social Research, Athens, Greece
