Social Enterprise as a Bridge between Public and Private Sectors: Stories from India and the UK

The ‘rise’ and the ‘spring’ of social entrepreneurship (Steyaert and Hjorth, 2006), along with the present buzz around it, seem inevitable. This interest appears to be emerging simultaneously in diverse spheres. Social enterprise and entrepreneurship “forms the ‘hybrid’ signifier and ‘oxymoron’ that can cover many diverse initiatives, oriented as an approach that can change welfare and social problems in the interfaces of the non-profit, public, voluntary, philanthropic and private sectors” (Steyaert and Hjorth, 2006, pp. 3-4). The study of Social Enterprise (SE) is reasonably fresh, and the pioneering model of organization, crossing the boundaries between for-profits and non-profits, has grown in significance. Social enterprise is located in the interstitial space of intersectionality between market, government and civil society. This chapter explores the concept of social enterprise to scrutinise the theoretical frameworks supporting social enterprise hybrids as the ideal type. The core ideas will be examined within the landscape of empirical evidence confirming the growing relevance of social enterprises in the UK and India as an organizational structure geared to create social values.