This project has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under

grant agreement no 613179  

 

 

     

                   

Social Enterprise, Social Innovation and

Social Entrepreneurship in Sweden: A National

Report

H. Thomas R. Persson & Niklas Hafen

University of Southern Denmark

November 2014

1    

List of content

About the Authors   2  

Current situation and early experiences   3  Introduction – A weakened welfare system in search for alternatives   3  Method   5  Sweden of today   6  A Swedish historic overview   10  

The landscape of social entrepreneurship   14  Main (social, labour and political) issues   18  The SE sector in Sweden   22  Legal framework   24  

Main steps, changes and evolution   25  

Inf luence of the EU and other international organisations   30  The social economy   30  

Role of institutions   34  The welfare state   34  The education system   38  

Concluding words   43  

References   44  

Appendix 1. List of conducted interviews   56  National authorities (7)   56  Local authorities and regions (2)   56  Organisations (9)   56  Social Enterprises (2)   56  Other (2)   56  

2    

About the Authors H. Thomas R. Persson is a Research Fellow at the Department of Leadership and Strategy, University of Southern, Denmark. His main research interests include: social in-tegration and segregation politics and policymaking; good governance and corporate social responsibility. Thomas Persson has carried out several evaluations and participatory action research evaluations on topics such as: youth politics, policymaking and implemen-tation; rehabilitation measurements focusing on long term unemployed individuals with disabilities; and co-development of CSR education for SMEs. Persson has amongst other things co-edited a special issue on the Governance from a Scandinavian Perspective (Tay-lor & Francis) and contributed to several international anthologies on governance and CSR (Routledge). Persson@sdu.dk Niklas Hafen is a Research Assistant at the Department of Leadership and Strategy, University of Southern, Denmark, and a PhD-student at Malmö University in Sweden. His main research interest is the use of sport as a means to initiate social change throughout the world. Hafen has carried out research on development projects where sport has been used as a means to educate young people about HIV/AIDS and increase gender-awareness in South Africa, and to reconcile countries in conflict (e.g. FYR Macedonia and Moldova). Hafen@sdu.dk

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Current situation and early experiences

Introduction – A weakened welfare system in search for alternatives

Sweden is commonly regarded as ‘one of the world’s most extensive and redistributive

welfare states’1 in many ways an archetypal welfare state2 based on a strong centralised

State. However, over the last three decades Sweden has gradually been liberalised

through the introduction of elements of individual freedom of choice and decentralisation

in welfare provision,3 a process initiated by a Centre-Right coalition during the end of the

1980s, continued by Social Democratic Governments and most recently by the Centre-

Right coalition.

Whilst the unemployment rate was 7.4 %, or 388 500 people in August 2014 and has

stayed on a level above 6 % over the last 12 years, and labour market policies cutting the

benefits for the long-term unemployed as well as income taxes for the employed were

introduced as a work incentive, a two tier system of insiders and outsiders has been ce-

mented. 4 Over the last decade, the long term unemployed and far removed from the la-

bour market have increased, now making up approximately 70 % of the total number of

unemployed people in Sweden.5 Those are alarming numbers for more than one reason.

No doubt, this is a position that most people would dread finding themselves in, but also,

from an economics point of view, it is ever harder to argue that these individuals are part

of a national labour force reserve, i.e. the longer time spent being unemployed, inde-

pendent of reason, the less attractive the individual becomes for the mainstream labour

market in the best of times. This has resulted in suggestions of a need of a two-tier labour

                                                                                                                         1 Pierson, P. (1996) ‘The new politics of the welfare state’. p. 170. 2 Svallfors, S. () ’Class, Attitudes and the Welfare State: Sweden in Comparative Perspective’. p. 121. 3 Lindvall, J. & Rothstein, B. (2006) ‘Sweden: The fall of the strong state’. 4 Ekonomifakta (2014b) Arbetslöshet. 5 Interview at Arbetsförmedlingen’s office for Social Enterprises. Conducted on August 22nd, 2014.

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market.6

Like in many other countries, also in Sweden, entrepreneurship is generally recognized

and emphasised as a means for economic growth and prosperity and a catchphrase for

economic stimulus. Even though stimulation of entrepreneurship is an important policy in

most countries, the positive societal outcomes are normally seen as indirect (i.e. generat-

ing jobs and more tax-income for the government) rather than direct societal effects

stemming from the specific activities. However, it is apparent that a diversity of entrepre-

neurship is required to overcome various societal, economic and environmental challeng-

es facing societies. Many of the existing problems as well as societal solutions are lega-

cies from the industrialisation, when boundaries between different sectors of society were

of greater importance, than in today’s post-industrialised societies. Moreover, the chal-

lenges of today are far more complex to be solved singlehanded. Therefore, in Europe,

entrepreneurship has increasingly come into focus as a potential stimulus for societal val-

ue creation as well. As a result a new strain of social entrepreneurs making use of main-

stream entrepreneurial logic – discovery, evaluation and exploitation of opportunities to

create future goods and services – when addressing societal problems, demonstrating

that it works to be both commercially oriented as well as ideologically driven. 7 Sweden is

no exception to this trend. However, when the President of the European Commission,

José Manuel Barroso states that:

“Social business can be indeed a very powerful agenda for change. To deliver better outcomes for the common good. To show that it is possible to do things more responsibly and more fairly, whilst still being a success on the market. And to become a real engine of growth in the EU. Europe must not only be part of these changes. Europe should be in the lead.”8

                                                                                                                         6 Sverigesradio (2014) Ekots utfrågning – Fredrik Reinfeldt frågas ut inför valet. 7 Moe, E. (2009) Vi behöver fler samhällsentreprenörer! p. 7; Alvord, Brown & Letts (2004) in: Stryjan, Y. (2005) The practice of social entrepreneurship: Theory and the Swedish experience., p. 4-5; Lundqvist, M.A. and Williams Middleton, K.L. (2010) Promises of societal entrepreneurship: Sweden and beyond. p. 24-25. 8 European Commission (2014) The social business initiative of the European Commission. Commissioner  

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One cannot but wonder how far the national and regional governments and stakeholders

have come in terms of developing eco-systems for social enterprises, to strengthen efforts

at national and regional levels, and to make best use of the structural funds and other

available sources of support, to paraphrase Commissioner László Andor, in charge of Em-

ployment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. 9

Method

In line with the call for THEME [SSH.2013.2.1-2] - Social entrepreneurship for innovative

and inclusive societies, this report takes its starting point in Social Entrepreneurship as

“an activity whose primary purpose is to pursue social goals, produce goods and services in a highly entrepreneurial, innovative and efficient manner to generate benefits for society and citizens, use surpluses mainly to achieve so-cial goals, and accomplish its mission through the way in which it involves workers, customers and stakeholders affected by its business activity. The prime objective of social entrepreneurship, therefore, is to generate and max-imize social value while remaining economically profitable.”10

The report represents a synthesis of literature, from policy documents, academic and

‘grey’ literature on social entrepreneurship, innovations and enterprises together with 21

interviews with representatives from stakeholder institutions, organisations, academia and

the sector. The interviewees are listed in Appendix 1. The role played by the state – gov-

ernments and oppositions – policymaking, legal framework, institutions, the market, the

school system and the academia in developing or constraining social entrepreneurship

and social innovation is investigated. The report covers the period from the end of the

                                                                                                                         9  Ibid. 10 European Commission (2012) Work programme 2013 (Revision) Theme 8 Socio-economic sciences and humanities (European Commission C(2012) 9371 of 14 December 2012). p. 23

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Second World War to present date, with specific focus on current development and dis-

cussions.

Sweden of today

Today the official number of social enterprises in Sweden is approximately three hun-

dred.11 The actors on the social entrepreneurship arena are all but a homogenous group,

independent of being described by the Government, Academia, Institutions or different

support structures. Moreover, there is currently no overarching legal definition of social

entrepreneurship or social enterprises. Nevertheless, social enterprises do have a range of

different legal forms including joint-stock companies (Aktiebolag), cooperative economic

associations (Ekonomiska föreningar), trading companies (Handelsbolag), not-for-profit

associations (Ideella föreningar) and foundations (Stiftelser).12 Joint-stock companies are

owned by shareholders who own a portion of the company in proportion to his or her

ownership of the company´s shares.13 Cooperative economic associations, as legal entity,

conduct economic activities to the mutual benefit of their members. 14 Trading companies

refers to an association of persons or an unincorporated company where the company

together with the individual owners are co-responsible for any legal liability procured by

the company.15 Not-for-profit associations use surplus revenues to achieve their goals ra-

ther than distributing them as profit.16 Foundations are the legal categorisation of not-for-

profit organisations sustained by donated funds, which are used to support causes, indi-

viduals or other organisations.17 A new addition is joint-stock companies with a limited

distribution of profits (aktiebolag med särskild vinstutdelningsbegränsning, SVB). This lat-

est addition has not been very successful and is only applied by a limited amount of social

                                                                                                                         11  Arbetsförmedlingen (2014) Arbetsförmedlingens roll vid socialt företagande. 12 Sofisam (2014) Sociala företag. 13 Nationalencyklopedin (2014). 14 Ibid. 15 Ibid. 16 Ibid. 17 Ibid.

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enterprises.18 At the present time, a majority of the social enterprises are conducted as

not-for-profit associations.19 As such, they do not aim to make a profit20 and are as a result

exempted from paying income tax.21 Most of the current social enterprises in Sweden are

operating within the service sector with the main objective to integrate marginalised peo-

ple that for various reasons have not established themselves on the labour market. As a

result, empowerment is one of the central outcomes of social enterprises. This is normally

achieved through employment and co-ownership.22

Social enterprises in Sweden vary considerably in size and activity. The smallest enterpris-

es have only a few employees, whereas the largest accommodates several hundred. Simi-

larly there is a significant difference in yearly revenues, varying from 30 000 to 30 million

Swedish kronor. The social enterprises offer services and products to the private and pub-

lic, as well as the civic sector. The activities range from cleaning and janitorial services to

various welfare services (i.e. healthcare, education and elderly care) and recycling.23 Given

this background Adviva 100 can be mentioned. The enterprise, which in 2013 won the

price for best Swedish social innovation, is only hiring people with disabilities.24 Other

newly established Swedish social enterprises that have gained considerable attention are

“Mattecentrum” (free after school math teaching for children and adolescents)25, “Mitt

liv” (integration of newly arrived immigrants in the labour market through mentoring and

                                                                                                                         18 Palmås, K (2013) Den misslyckade välfärdsreformen. Därför floppade aktiebolag med begränsad vinst. p. 33-34. Information also obtained from interview with the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket) June 3rd, 2014.        19  Sofisam (2014) Sociala företag. 20 Information obtained by the Swedish Tax-Agency (Skatteverket) on May 7th, 2014. 21 Income tax is a government levy (tax) imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) that vary with the income or profits (taxable income) of the taxpayer. 22 Arbetsförmedlingen (2014) Arbetsförmedlingens roll vid socialt företagande. 23 Sociala företag behövs! En skrift om sociala företag - en väg till arbete, nya affärsidéer och rehabilitering. p.7. 24 Adviva (2014) The price is given annually by the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket). 25 Mattecentrum (n.d.) Om oss.

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education)26 “The Fair Tailor” (production of fair trade textiles)27, “European Sign Lan-

guage Centre” (making sign language available through a web based computer pro-

gram)28 and Yallatrappan (café and catering, a cleaning and conference service and a sew-

ing and design studio with IKEA as a client).29

Despite, or maybe due to the absence of an overarching legal definition of social entre-

preneurship or social enterprises in Sweden, the attempts to define and to describe the

arena are plentiful. For example, when the Ministry of Enterprise in 2007 addressed social

enterprises, they did so without an explicit definition and with two quite different entre-

preneurial actors in mind. On one side of the spectrum, in connection to social innova-

tion, the term societal entrepreneurship was used to describe initiatives meeting societal

challenges in general, exemplified with water and waste disposal, pharmaceutical devel-

opments and new building material. On the other side of the spectrum, social enterprises

was used to describe work-integration social enterprises (WISE) providing job opportuni-

ties for long-term unemployed individuals who have little or no prospects to (re)establish

themselves on the labour market due to long-term illness, disabilities, or being newly ar-

rived immigrants, for example.30 In 2012, when they launched the Swedish innovation

strategy the ministry it presented what could be described as an ‘open’ definition stress-

ing that “Social innovation and social entrepreneurship is about processes aimed at solv-

ing societal problems in new ways, with innovative ideas and methods [taking] place in

the borderland between industry, the public sector and civil society.”31

                                                                                                                         26 Mitt liv (n.d.) Det här är mitt liv. 27 Fair Tailor, The (n.d.) The fair tailor – en blogg om socialt företagande, skjortor och Nepal. 28  Singlanguage (n.d.) European Sign Language Centre. 29 Yallatrappan (n.d.) About Yalla Trappan. 30 Näringsdepartementet (2007) Pressmeddelande 26 november 2007 – Regeringen stödjer socialt företa-gande; Näringsdepartmentet (2014) Pressmeddelande 25 mars 2014 Näringsdepartementet – Annie Lööf vill göra business på hållbarhet. 31 Swedish Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications, The (2012) Swedish innovation strategy. p. 40.

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Amongst State Institutions, The Swedish Public Employment Office (Arbetsförmedlingen),

regulated by the Ministry of Employment (Arbetsmarknadsdepartementet), financially

supporting WISE start-ups, takes the most exclusive stand on how to define social enter-

prises. The Swedish Unemployment Office, whose role is to support the individual in his

or her search for employment, sees WISEs as exclusively those social enterprises started

by, run by and only employing individuals categorised as long term unemployed, far re-

moved from the labour market and therefore with little opportunity to (re)establish them-

selves on the labour market. The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth

(Tillväxtverket), belonging to the Ministry of Enterprise, resembles the Government in

their approach to the subject in supporting the two opposite poles. VINNOVA, Sweden’s

innovation agency, is assigned the task to work with social innovation in relation to global

social challenges – climate, energy, the environment, demographics, social security and

participation, good health and education – in collaboration with universities and in consul-

tation with other relevant actors.32

However, the picture is largely a different case when Academia describes the notion of

social entrepreneurship in Sweden. Amongst such descriptions one finds a much greater

variety of entrepreneurship, including: community or societal entrepreneurship (sam-

hällsentreprenörskap, version A), local, rather than centralised, bottom-up initiatives in

reaction to social challenges; civic entrepreneurship (samhällsentreprenörskap, version B),

local or regional top-down initiatives by actors attempting to enable (social) entrepreneur-

ial activities and enterprises; [work-integration] social entrepreneurship ([arbetsintegre-

rande] socialt entreprenörskap), either run for or run by long-term unemployed individu-

als; and public entrepreneurship (publikt entrenörskap), interpersonal non-economic en-

trepreneurial social business creation. A more recent development and expression of so-

cial entrepreneurship is a more business driven version. It puts the business case, in terms

                                                                                                                         32 VINNOVA (2012) Social Challenges.

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of profitability, in the driving seat, while social innovation either refers to product, service

and/or impact. At a first glance, the variety and discrepancy between the different terms

and definitions give rise to more questions than answers. As often, however, the clues can

be found in the historical context.

A Swedish historic overview

Sweden is a country in which all the political parties in the parliament – from left to right –

embrace a welfare model in which a high tax pressure (5th highest amongst OECD coun-

tries) is to warrant for a public sector capable of providing a high standard of healthcare,

education and social security to all citizens.33 In many respects, the Swedish welfare sys-

tem has become synonymous with a government driven public sector. However, the so-

cial and societal responsibility over the Swedish citizens goes beyond the public sector in

many ways. In Sweden, the state and the civil society have developed hand in hand and

in many ways taken a joint responsibility for the common citizen. Consequently, in mod-

ern times the Swedish state has always been a supporter of a broad voluntary sector, ex-

pressed for example in and by political, sport, cultural and religious associations, in Swe-

dish referred to as the peoples’ movement (Folkrörelser).34

A distinctive feature of the social economy in Sweden lies in the establishment of the

above mentioned people´s movement during the 19th century, characterised by demo-

cratic decision-making, civic engagement and voluntary work.35 Popular movements

emerged in Sweden simultaneously with the country suffering from high unemployment

and poverty. In addition, the state church´s power as an agent for social prosperity began

                                                                                                                         33  Ekonomifakta (2014a) Skattetryck – internationellt. 34 Lundqvist, M.A & Middleton Williams, K. L (2010) Promises of societal entrepreneurship: Sweden and beyond. p. 25-26. 35 Social ekonomi: en skrift om Regeringskansliets arbete med ett nytt begrepp. (2001) p. 3; Eriksson (2005) p. 11.

11    

to diminish. In the past the church had been truly committed towards social welfare by

claiming responsibility for the marginalised groups of society.36 As a result, many of Swe-

den´s modern social programs can be traced back to different forms of charity work con-

ducted by religious organisations in their care for orphans, the sick, the elderly, and most

important the poor.37 In that sense, one could argue that the church paved the way for

the growth of the modern Swedish welfare state.38

Nonetheless, as a result of an increased secularisation around the country, Swedish citi-

zen’s ability to engage independently as well as collectively to address social issues be-

came more prevalent.39 Subsequently, by the end of the 19th century the Swedish state

had developed a somewhat comprehensible social policy to take care of the marginalised

groups of society.40 In addition, also the Swedish guilds41 played a crucial role for the es-

tablishment of the welfare state. In many respects the guilds kept their grip on Swedish

manufacturing until the middle of the 19th century. Their primary interests regarded the

economic security of their members. In part, the security was promoted by mutual insur-

ance against economic loss caused by various forms of accidents, unemployment, illness

or death. When the guilds were dissolved in 1846 it nurtured the rising labour movement

as well as other socio-political organisations.

Another important source of the Swedish welfare system was the experience of other,

more advanced industrial societies in Europe, such as Germany. Even though the political

reasons that motivated Bismarck´s several comprehensive social insurance laws during the                                                                                                                          36 Hedenborg, S. & Kvarnström, L. (2009) Det svenska samhället 1720-2006. Böndernas och arbetarnas tid. p. 134-136. 37 Einhorn & Logue (2003) Modern welfare states: Scandinavian politics and policy in the global age. p. 193. 38 Hedenborg, S. & Kvarnström, L. (2009) p. 134-136. 39 Micheletti, M. (1994) Det civila samhället och staten. Medborgarsammanslutningarnas roll i svensk politik. p. 79, 94, 99, 102-103. 40 Einhorn, S.E & Logue, J. (2003) p. 193. 41 Guilds are referring to associations of craftsmen or merchants who controlled the practice of their craft in a particular town. In many respects, the guilds laid the foundation for the Swedish trade unions.

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1880´s was not as compelling to Sweden, the political, social and economic attraction of

the German innovations, such as health insurance, worker´s compensation and old-age

pensions, clearly reinforced early Swedish socio-political reforms.42 A final contributing

factor to the establishment of the welfare state was emigration. Seventy-five years of

Swedish emigration, mainly towards the Americas, starting in the 1840s, paved the way

for social policy making in two major ways. First, emigration became an enormous safety

valve by drastically reducing overpopulation in rural districts and overcrowding of the

slums in the growing industrial towns. Second, emigration in itself alerted the political

authorities to that the conditions throughout the country were unsatisfactory for many

citizens. In this respect, emigration can be said to have encouraged the launch of various

political reforms, which in turn resulted in social legislation.43

However, the real embryo of the Swedish modern welfare state lies in the political strug-

gles of the late 19th century caused by industrialisation and the rise of the labour move-

ment.44 The great influence of social democracy in Sweden has clearly been the dominant

force behind the establishment of the welfare state. Instead of tolerating a dualism be-

tween the state and the market or between the working class and the middle class, the

Social Democrats pursued a welfare state that promoted an equality of the highest stand-

ards. This implied that equality was not supposed to be considered reached until the

workers enjoyed the same quality and rights as the better off in society.45 A strong labour

movement with close ties with the Social Democrats resulted in one of the strongest and

possibly best-developed welfare states. The success of the labour movement and the de-

velopment of the welfare state have thus been intimately related. The social transfor-

mation that was brought on in Sweden when the Social Democrats came into power in

                                                                                                                         42  Einhorn, S.E. & Logue, J. (2003) p. 194. 43 Einhorn, S.E. & Logue, J. (2003) p. 194-195. 44 Ibid. p. 17. 45 Ibid. p.27.

13    

1920 presaged a more general development towards a welfare state, in comparison to

other western countries during the post-war period.46 Accordingly, the foundation of the

welfare state was laid already during the interwar period, even though the real develop-

ment took place first after the end of World War II.47

The Swedish Social Democratic Government was the world´s first socialist government

ever to establish itself without a revolution. Despite the Great Depression in America in

the late 1920s, Sweden´s economy was characterised by relatively high levels of employ-

ment and a vital economy during the same period.48 Per Albin Hansson, the Social Demo-

crat that best personifies the idea of the Swedish welfare state, claimed that the welfare

state symbolised a society without any social classes. This, he stated, required both in-

creased efforts to improve the material standard of living and a comprehensive safety net

for all of society’s citizens.49 The central feature of the Swedish welfare state was a com-

promise between a social democratic state on the one hand and the private market on

the other. Unlike other socialist states the Social Democrats allowed the private market to

expand on its own and remain in private ownership. Unlike the capitalist countries, they

put a lot of emphasis on building a large public welfare system with the aim to cover all of

the country´s citizens. As a result, this compromise came to symbolise a sort of political

hybrid where private capitalism and state-controlled planned economy became the main

ingredients. Furthermore, this “Swedish model”50 along with the establishment of the wel-

fare state did thus combine economic growth and private property with equity and social

justice among the population, primarily through the use of an extensive public sector,

                                                                                                                         46 Ibid. p. 17; Hedenborg, S. & Kvarnström, L. (2009) p. 226, 234; Eklund, K. (2010) Vår ekonomi. En intro-duktion till samhällsekonomin. p. 245-249. 47 Micheletti, M. (1994) p. 79, 94, 99, 102-103. 48 Hedenborg, S. & Kvarnström, L. (2009) p. 226, 234, 295; Eklund, K. (2010) p. 245-249. 49 Hedenborg, S. & Kvarnström, L. (2009) p. 284-285. 50 The Swedish model can further be described as the combination of large corporations and the public sector as the primary engines for economic development. (Henrekson (2001) “The entrepreneur and the Swedish Model”. p. 143.

14    

which consequently reduced the need for a social economy or social enterprises to de-

velop.51

The landscape of social entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship is a melting pot of entrepreneurships emphasising social values.

Although one find several expressions of social entrepreneurship, in most cases the varia-

tions are small, almost not detectable for an outsider, but nevertheless important for

those defining the field. To navigate the Swedish arena for social entrepreneurship, social

enterprises and social innovation, to see similarities as well as differences, a point of de-

parture is taken in a definition put forward by the European Commission in 2013. Accord-

ingly social entrepreneurship is:

“an activity whose primary purpose is to pursue social goals, produce goods and services in a highly entrepreneurial, innovative and efficient manner to generate benefits for society and citizens, use surpluses mainly to achieve so-cial goals, and accomplish its mission through the way in which it involves workers, customers and stakeholders affected by its business activity. The prime objective of social entrepreneurship, therefore, is to generate and max-imize social value while remaining economically profitable.”52

This is very close to the aforementioned Swedish definition of the social economy which

was to refer to:

“to organised bodies that primarily have social purposes, are based on demo-cratic values and act independently of the public sector. Their social and eco-nomic activities are conducted mainly in associations, cooperatives, founda-tions and similar bodies. Activities in the social economy have the public good

                                                                                                                         51  Eklund, K. (2010) p. 248-249. 52 European Commission (2012) Work programme 2013 (Revision) Theme 8 Socio-economic sciences and humanities (European Commission C(2012) 9371 of 14 December 2012). p. 23

15    

or the good of their members, not private interests, as their principal driving force”.53

However, when talking about social entrepreneurship in a Swedish context, one needs to

distinguish between at least four different streams of entrepreneurship with social or soci-

etal purposes. Some of these stem from older domestic traditions, whilst others spring

from more recent foreign influences. The term societal entrepreneurship emerged as a

description of those local, rather than centralised, initiatives developing during the late

1970´s to counteract the result of the decline of large corporate and industrial activities in

smaller communities. As local strategies developed, early streams of Swedish research

emerged around the phenomenon, which in international publications were labelled

community entrepreneurship.54 From the 1990s onwards the flora of entrepreneurship-

terms has increased to include, civic entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship and public

entrepreneurship.55

Civic entrepreneurship is in some ways related to community entrepreneurship. It is char-

acterised by local or regional actors from the private sector, sometimes from the public

sector or academia involving themselves in attempts to enable (social) entrepreneurial

activities and enterprises. In Sweden, civic entrepreneurship differs from the community

entrepreneurship in regards to what degree it involves civic society. Ironically, the com-

munity entrepreneurship is more oriented towards the civic society, whilst civic entrepre-

neurship orients itself towards business, public and academic sectors. 56 One could say

that certain traits of civic entrepreneurship resemble what elsewhere in the literature

would be described as CSR.

                                                                                                                         53  Social ekonomi: en skrift om Regeringskansliets arbete med ett nytt begrepp. (2001). p. 10 54 Johannisson, B. (1990) ‘Community entrepreneurship – cases and conceptualisation; Johannisson, B. & Nilsson, A. (1989) ‘Community entrepreneurs – networking for local development. 55 Lundqvist, M. A & Middleton Williams, K. L (2010) Promises of societal entrepreneurship: Sweden and beyond. p. 25-26. 56 Ibid. p. 25-26.

16    

Social entrepreneurship is currently the most widely recognised and utilised form, both

internationally and in Sweden. The Anglo-American understanding of the concept has

gained the strongest influence in the Swedish setting. However, there are clear differ-

ences between the US and the UK versions of social entrepreneurship. From an American

point of view, social entrepreneurship often alludes to traditional philanthropy. The Angli-

can version, on the other hand, stems from experiences in new forms of public-private

structures. A basic assumption according to the Anglican understanding of the concept is

that the welfare state should remain and not necessarily be replaced by charity. A main

feature of social entrepreneurship is the breaking with traditional boundaries of the mod-

ern industrial welfare state. At its core, civic society is becoming more integrated into the

business and public sector.57

Public entrepreneurship is sometimes viewed as a resistance against the Anglo-American

version of social entrepreneurship. 58 The difference, advocating this new addition to the

flora of social entrepreneurship terminology, is that the outcome is societal, an interper-

sonal creation, rather than economic/societal, a social business creation.59 One could say

that it contains a streak of activism and manifestation.

Social enterprises as a term have a somewhat more disparate history. It was first used by

the Social Democratic ideologist and twice Minister of Finance, Ernst Wigforss (1925–6 /

1932–49), and then again at the 1976 LO Congress when it was used to describe a vision

to convert large private industries into social enterprises without private owners, a form of

nationalisation of large corporations through ‘wage-earner funds’. The attempt was based

on an idea that the unions and the state, as employer, would in this way be able to decide

                                                                                                                         57  Ibid.  p.  28.  58  Ibid  p.  25-­‐26.  59  Bjerke,  B.,  Hjort,  D.,  Larsson,  H.  &  Asplund,  C.-­‐J.  (2007)  Publikt  entreprenörskap  –  Det  marginella  görs  centralt.  p.  44.  

17    

the level of employment.60 However, more modern versions of social enterprises, enter-

prises with social or societal purposes as their primary goal, needs to be understood as a

phenomena existing on a matrix with two sliding scales between exclusive and open

forms, and between not-for-profit and for-profit forms. If social enterprises are to be un-

derstood as, for example cooperative not-for-profit initiatives, providing services that the

public sector no longer is capable of delivering to the extent needed or quality demand-

ed, then social enterprises started to emerge during the 1980s. This development was

primarily represented by cooperative childcare services. Around the same time, the first

work-integration social enterprises arose. This type of social enterprises was a response

from those hardest hit at the time when the system of local employment offices eroded

and a restructuring of the mental healthcare system took place, resulting in ever larger

number of openly marginalised groups. Although little speaks in favour of the purest form

of this model, i.e. started and run by those long term unemployed individuals who are

perceived in a position furthest away from the labour market, it is still today used by the

state run employment office (Arbetsförmedlingen) and thereby state financed, despite

showing close to nil survival rate after the individual “start-up” funding coming to end.61

On the other side of the same spectrum one finds the more open form of work-

integration social enterprises, initiated and ‘run’ by entrepreneurs with business ideas that

may or may not have social or societal purposes, but integrate the social and societal

purpose of employing marginalised individuals. The entrepreneur may or may not be a

first time entrepreneur and may or may not already be in employment or be categorised

as being marginalised. The not-for-profit form of social enterprises is by far the most

common version, at least as an idea. Whether these attempts should as rule materialise

                                                                                                                         60  Henrekson, M. & Jakobsson, U. (2003) ‘The transformation of ownership, policy and structure in Sweden: Convergence towards the Anglo-Saxon model? p. 76-77. 61 Stryjan, Y. & Pestoff, V. (2008) ’Sweden’. In Defourny, J. & Nyssens, M. (eds.) Social enterprises in Europe – Recent trends and developments. WP no. 08/01 EMES, European Research Network.; Interview at Ar-betsförmedlingen’s office for Social enterprises; Interview with F. Björk, Lector in Social entrepreneurship at Malmö högskola.

18    

into enterprises or sometimes remain as projects funded initiatives are part of an on-

going debate. A third more recent and less developed phenomena are the Incubators

and the incubated for-profit enterprises that are in business for social and societal pur-

poses, but do not per definition include the element of employing marginalised individu-

als. These are represented amongst Lusic’s start-ups, such as Juvopal that in collaboration

with several municipalities have developed the Interactive network-map app with the aim

to strengthen children’s rights to inclusive participation in decision-making processes af-

fecting them, such as when childcare disputes are negotiated.62

Main (social, labour and political) issues

Although, the notion of social entrepreneurship has gained increased recognition during

the past few years, both as a visible mode of economic action and as an important tool

for policymaking, 63 the Swedish interest in causes counting as social entrepreneurship is

not entirely new. Already during the 18th century, the famous botanist Carl Linnaeus had

with his studies sustainable use of natural resources as his main objective.64

The National Association of Social Work (CSA, Centralförbundet för Socialt Arbete) was

founded in 1903 and modelled to large extent on the League for Social Service (also

known as the Institute of Social Service) initiated by American William H Tolman a few

years earlier.65 CSA played an important role for the increased awareness regarding socio-

                                                                                                                         62 LU Open (n.d.) Social innovation; Juvopal (n.d.) Om oss. 63 Stryjan, Y. (2005) The practice of social entrepreneurship: Theory and the Swedish experience. p. 4. 64 Gawell, Johannisson & Lundqvist (Eds.) (2009) Entrepreneurship in the Name of Society. Reader´s Digest of a Swedish Research Anthology. p. 11. 65 Carlson, B. (2005) Ekonomernas välfärdsrecept: Höga löner och trygga truster. p. 17-18; Östlund, D. (2003) Det sociala kriget och kapitalets ansvar. Social ingenjörskonst mellan affärsintresse och samhällsre-form i USA och Sverige 1899-1914. p. 474-475.

19    

political issues in the country.66 Furthermore, it gave rise to a mobilisation amongst citi-

zens to solve social problems on their own.67 On this basis it is worth mentioning that the

Swedish institutional set-up and organisational tradition differ from many other European

countries, especially when it comes to the strong emphasis on mutuality (reciprocal ac-

tion), self-help and a preference for volunteer-run associations: all embedded within the

peoples´ movement tradition. In parallel, the institutional set-up is characterised by an

extensive welfare system dominated by the public sector. As a result non-public initiatives

have largely been excluded from the welfare system, education and employment ser-

vices.68 However, the emergence of welfare service cooperatives during the 1970´s played

an important role in breaking this trend and opened the field for non-public initiatives.

Today, these cooperatives illustrate some of the central features of the welfare state´s in-

stitutions, and the way these can be taken advantage of by social entrepreneurs. The wel-

fare service cooperatives made their first appearance on the Swedish scene during the

1970s, when several parent-cooperatives within the childcare sector were created.69 As a

result, more cooperatives, modelling themselves on the former, were established. This

has gradually provided legitimacy to social entrepreneurship in general.70

Although social entrepreneurship is a relatively new term in Sweden, the concept of inno-

vation is not. Sweden has fostered many big enterprises throughout the years, such as

Ericsson, Alfa-Laval, IKEA, Volvo and SAAB, just to name a few.71 The birth and survival of

new enterprises is considered important for international competitiveness and business

climate rankings, where Sweden often scores well, and more so for the vitality of the                                                                                                                          66 Östlund, D. (2003) p. 476; Johnson, A. (2006) Folkhemmet före Per Albin Hansson. Om välfärdssamhällets liberala och privata rötter. p. 2-4; Turunen, P. (2013) Deltagardemokratiska och systematiska metoder för komplexa samhällsfrågor och samhällsentreprenörskap. Ett komparativt perspektiv. p. 22.  67  Östlund, D. (2003) p. 478. 68 Ibid. p. 8-9. 69 Kossan and other parent-cooperatives facilitates for parents to take over their own children´s childcare. Kossan (2014). 70 Engström 1982; Pestoff 1998 in: Stryjan, Y. (2005) p. 9. 71 Högfeldt, P. (2005) The History and Politics of Corporate Ownership in Sweden. p. 523.

20    

Swedish economy in general.72 Big companies like Ericsson, established in 1876, and Vol-

vo, established in 1926, have been around and able to grow strong over a very long

time.73 However, a common perception about social entrepreneurship is that it does not

give rise to new large corporations that society can benefit from.74 This strong belief in

large companies as the sole saviours is somewhat misplaced. Amongst enterprise and

labour market research it has long been argued that the majority of new job opportunities

are created in small and medium sized enterprises (Birch 1979).75 Even though the condi-

tions for smaller companies are perceived as relatively good in many respects, there are

also arguments in favour of further improvements.76 This is supported in a recent report

delivered by the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The report states that only one of Sweden´s

ten most successful77 corporations today was founded after the year of 1930.78

Over the last couple of years a change in attitude towards entrepreneurial activity in vari-

ous forms has been noticeable. Entrepreneurial activities are gradually recognised as a

good way of reducing unemployment by facilitating jobs on the labour market and the

Swedish government has started to support an increased amount of newly started busi-

nesses around the country. Some of these initiatives have been socially oriented.79 One

important factor to keep in mind when discussing social entrepreneurship in Sweden is

that, according to public opinion and to large extent the praxis, social problems is the

                                                                                                                         72  Forbes (2013) The World’s 15 most inventive cities. Available from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/williampentland/2013/07/09/worlds-15-most-inventive-cities/ [14 Oct 2014]; Calidoni, Flodberg, Jernström, Quoreshi & Sundell (2007) Nyföretagande i Sverige: En kartläggning av poli-cyåtgärder i ett internationellt perspektiv samt kvantitativa analyser av nyföretagande i Sverige. p. 10-11; Reinfeldt (2008) The new Swedish Model: A Reform Agenda for Growth and the Environment. p.6. 73 Whilst Volvo Trucks is still a Swedish owned company, Volvo Car Corporation, originally Swedish owned, is today owned by China based Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (51 %) and two different Chines investment funds (37 % and 12 % respectively). 74 Stjern, S. (2013) Det tar tid att bygga företag. p. 1. 75 Birch, D. L. (1979). The Job Generation Process: Final Report to Economic Development Administration. 76 Reinfeldt, F. (2008). p. 6. 77 In this sense, “successful” refers to a company’s economic turnover. 78 Stjern, S. (2013) p.1. 79 Calidoni, Flodberg, Jernström, Quoreshi & Sundell (2007) p. 10-11.

21    

main responsibility of institutions and state, rather than individuals. The Swedish society

has a long history of political stability and its citizens have traditionally had great trust in

the government´s ability to solve the most pressing societal challenges through various

policymaking. This may be the reason for why Swedes not yet have seen the need for so-

cial entrepreneurship. The concept itself has often been felt difficult to comprehend.

However, in a rather short period of time Sweden is coming aware of social entrepreneur-

ship, realizing that it may have the capacity to change systems and societies in a new in-

novative way. Although official numbers of social enterprises are hard to validate, the

number is increasing.80

Today, the Swedish government offers support to different forms of entrepreneurial start-

up businesses, mainly through bodies such as the Swedish Public Employment Service

(Arbetsförmedlingen), the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) and the

Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan).81 The support ranges from econom-

ic contribution to personal guidance.82 Still, the support is relatively absent, when it

comes to social entrepreneurs. This exposes a real gap in the support market for social

innovators. Nevertheless, the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth

(Tillväxtverket) is, in collaboration with the EU, running an initiative offering support to a

number of selected social enterprises throughout the country. In addition to this support

the agency also funds other forms of entrepreneurial activities.83 Other examples of

                                                                                                                         80  Mantel, N. & Allen Lampte, R. (2013) Social entrepreneurship: on the rise in Sweden? 81 Sociala företag behövs! En skrift om sociala företag - en väg till arbete, nya affärsideer och rehabilitering. 82 All Swedish entrepreneurs can seek money from the government to develop business ideas. In addition, The Swedish Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen) offers start-up grants (starta-eget-bidrag) for long-term unemployed people. However, there are no special grants offered to social entrepreneurs per se. Information obtained by telephone from the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket) April 23rd, 2014. 83 Mantel, N. & Allen Lampte, R. (2013) Social entrepreneurship: on the rise in Sweden?

22    

stakeholders offering support is Social Entrepreneurship Forum (SE-Forum) and Centre for

Social Entrepreneurship (CSES), both located in Stockholm.84

The SE sector in Sweden

The concepts of social innovations, social enterprises and social entrepreneurship are as

already mentioned relatively new in Sweden. They were introduced to the general public

by the Knowledge Foundation (KK-stiftelsen) in the year of 2008, when the foundation

launched a program for social entrepreneurship. The idea was to distribute 120 million

SEK over a period of nine years to research and educate within the field. The main objec-

tive was to promote the development of social entrepreneurship as a means to create a

socially sustainable Sweden. The Foundation´s preliminary definition of social entrepre-

neurship was ‘innovative societal initiatives’ for the common good of society. Based on

this definition the foundation has provided funding for five large research projects and

eight smaller pilot projects. It has also established a national knowledge hub for social

innovations and social entrepreneurship at Malmö University in southern Sweden. Fur-

thermore, it has gathered a large number of stakeholders to support the growing interest

in the field. As such, Sweden´s Innovation Agency, VINNOVA, can be mentioned. VIN-

NOVA works under the Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications

(Näringsdepartementet) and acts as the national contact agency for the EU Framework

Programme for R&D. VINNOVA´s mission is to promote sustainable growth by improving

the conditions for various forms of innovation throughout the country. Every year the

agency invests approximately 2,7 billion SEK in various innovative initiatives. In the year of

2012 VINNOVA was commissioned by the Swedish government to focus on social innova-

                                                                                                                         84 Interview with Social Entrepreneurship Forum (SE-Forum) June 4th, 2014; Interview with Centre for Social Entrepreneurship (CSES) August 15th, 2014.

23    

tions, primarily in the public sector. The commission resulted in a number of innovations,

especially within the elderly care.85

There is nevertheless an ongoing debate about what the concepts of social innovations,

social enterprises and social entrepreneurship really mean. In some ways this has to do

with the fact that the concepts are imported, mainly from Anglo-American countries, but

also from continental European countries. When the English word “social” has been

translated into a Swedish context confusion has emerged. A direct translation is unfortu-

nate since the English word ‘social’ holds a slightly different meaning in Swedish. In Swe-

den social tends to mean ‘social relations’, but in praxis, social – in social innovation, so-

cial entrepreneurship and social enterprises – has come to refer to initiatives with societal

outcomes. Unlike with traditional charitable organisations, there is an idea that these initi-

atives are supposed to be financed in a business-like setting. In addition social enterprises

are generally understood as companies with the aim to reduce social exclusion and to

provide efficient welfare services in a not-for-profit setting.86 It is nonetheless the conti-

nental European interpretation of social entrepreneurship that has gained the most influ-

ence. An important explanatory factor is the existence of a strong civil society and a well-

developed social economy stemming from the peoples´ movement tradition (e.g. Labor

movements, Temperance movements, Free Church movements) during the 19th century.

As a result, Sweden has had a long history of not-for-profit organisations with societal

aims. Given this background the continental European notion of social economy has had

an upper hand when addressing the question of social entrepreneurship in Sweden.87

                                                                                                                         85 VINNOVA (2014) Sociala innovationer. 86 Palmås, K (2013) Den misslyckade välfärdsreformen. Därför floppade aktiebolag med begränsad vinst. p.17. 87 Ibid. p. 16-23.

24    

Legal framework

In Sweden on the whole, the level of institutionalisation of the different existing forms of

social enterprises remains extremely low, almost none existing. As a result there are no

real support structures. However, when it comes to legal frameworks, two Swedish laws

have come to influence the sector - The Public Procurement Act (Lagen Om Offentlig Up-

phandling, LOU and The Law on Freedom of Choice (Lagen Om Valfrihet, LOV). The latter

ensures the right of citizens to choose their own welfare service provider amongst the

possible actors from the public, the private and the not-for-profit sector.88 The Public Pro-

curement Act (LOU) governs purchases made by government agencies and other organi-

zations that are publically funded. The law came into effect in 2008, but has had a nega-

tive impact on the country´s social enterprises’ ability to compete with the larger firms.

Social enterprises, out of which the majority are small businesses, are without the financial

muscles and lack access to the legal expertise needed to interpret the law correctly to

compete with larger companies. There is little if any legal and administrative assistance

needed for realising many of the social entrepreneurial ides. Moreover, because the

‘Swedish model’, where all public services have been carried out by the public sector, lack

the tradition to organise services together with social enterprises, it is often taken for

granted that new actors establishing themselves in the sector will either be new public

initiatives or private business initiatives. As a result, the questions becomes one of price

over quality. if a social enterprise offers its services to the public sector, the law forces the

public sector to choose option, only based on price,

As a result there is no legal and administrative assistance for the realisation of many social

entrepreneurial ideas. If a social enterprise offers its services to the public sector the law

(i.e. The Public Procurement Act) forces the public sector to choose the cheapest option.

Unfortunately, this has resulted in a situation where price has become more important

                                                                                                                         88  VITA EUROPE. The Hub of European nonprofit sector (2014). Information also obtained from interview with the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth June 3rd, 2014.

25    

than quality.89 However, with the recent amendment on public procurement there may be

improvement in the offing.90

Main steps, changes and evolution

Most of the social enterprises in Sweden are conducted as non-for-profit associations.91

As such, they do not aim to make a profit92 and are as a result exempted from paying in-

come tax.93 Most of the social enterprises in the country are operating within the service

sector with the main objective to integrate marginalised people that for various reasons

have not established themselves on the labour market. As a result these enterprises em-

power their employees through private ownership and employment.94 Social enterprises

with the aim to integrate marginalised people on the labour market are defined as work-

integration social enterprises (arbetsintegrerande sociala företag), especially by national

bodies such as the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket),

the Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications (Näringsdepartementet) and the

Swedish Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen).95 Current definition has in

many ways become synonymous with social enterprises. However, not everyone shares

this definition. According to other relevant stakeholders such as the Swedish Association

                                                                                                                         89  Hur få fler sociala företag som utförare av offentliga tjänster? – en guide om offentlig upphandling (2006). p. 3. Information also obtained from interviews with the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Re-gions (SKL) June 4th, 2014; Yalla Trappan August 27th, 2014; Organisation NETWORK - Idea-based sector Scania September 4th, 2014. 90 European Parliament (2014) ***I Position of the European Parliament, adopted at first reading on 15 Jan-uary 2014 with a view to the adoption Directive 2014/.../EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on public procurement and repealing Directive 2004/18/EC (EP-PE_TC1-COD(2011)0438). 91 Sofisam (2014) Social företag. 92 Information obtained by telephone from the Swedish Tax-Agency (Skatteverket) on May 7th, 2014. 93 Income tax is a government levy (tax) imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) that vary with the income or profits (taxable income) of the taxpayer. 94 Arbetsförmedlingen (2014) Arbetsförmedlingens roll vid socialt företagande. 95 Information obtained from interviews with the Swedish Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen) August 22nd, 2014; the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket) June 3rd, 2014; the Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications (Näringsdepartementet) August 27th, 2014.

26    

of Local Authorities and Regions (Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting, SKL), VINNOVA,

Social Entrepreneurship Forum (SE-Forum) and Centre for Social Entrepreneurship (CSES)

social enterprises implies all “social” businesses that primarily are operating for the com-

mon good of society rather than seeking to make profit. From this point of view social

enterprise as a concept has a much broader meaning.96 Despite this disagreement the

definition of social enterprises as work-integration enterprises continues to gain the most

influence. A good example is the action plan N2010/1894/ENT launched by the Swedish

government in 2010. The plan emphasise the importance of work-integration social en-

terprises as a means to reduce social exclusion. Furthermore it highlights the importance

of collaboration between the public, private and the non-profit sector to address this mat-

ter. In this regard an increased collaboration between municipalities and county councils

has been recommended.97 As a result the municipality of Malmö launched a policy on

social sustainability in 2014 (STK-2013-145) – a policy in which social innovations (e.g.

work-integration social enterprises) has a central role.98 The municipality of Malmö already

host a great number of stakeholders in order for work-integration social enterprises as

well as other social innovations to grow. The most prominent are; Coompanion, Growth

Malmö (Tillväxt Malmö), Network – Idea-based sector Skane (Nätverket – Idéburen sektor

Skåne), Centre for Public Entrepreneurship (Centrum för Publikt Entreprenörskap), City

Mission Skane (Stadsmissionen Skåne) and the Swedish ESF Council of Southern Sweden

(ESF-rådet i södra Sverige). All of these organisations serve as resources for social entre-

preneurs in the region of southern Sweden.99 Another relevant stakeholder to mention is

Region Skane (Region Skåne). Region Skane is responsible for health care, public                                                                                                                          96 Information obtained from interviews with the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SKL) June 4th, 2014; VINNOVA September 16th, 2014; Social Entrepreneurship Forum (SE-Forum) June 4th, 2014; Centre for Social Entrepreneurship (CSES) August 15th, 2014. 97 Regeringsbeslut (N2010/1894/ENT). 98 Slutrapport från Kommission för ett socialt hållbart Malmö (STK-2013-145). 99 Information obtained from interviews with Coompanion August 18th, 2014; Growth Malmö August 27th, 2014; Network – Idea-based sector Scania September 4th, 2014; Centre for Public Entrepreneurship Sep-tember 4th, 2014; City Mission Scania August 28th, 2014; the Swedish ESF Council of Southern Sweden Au-gust 28th, 2014.

27    

transport and sustainable development in the whole county of Skane (Skåne), in southern

Sweden. The organisations´ highest governing body is the regional council, elected by

the inhabitants of Skane. In 2010 a four-year- agreement on cooperation between Region

Skane and the third sector of Skane was established. The agreement stresses the im-

portance of work-integration social enterprises as means to create job opportunities for

people outside the traditional labour market. This form of social enterprises is thus seen

as a gateway to the labour market for individuals who, for various reasons, have had trou-

ble establishing themselves. Accordingly, work-integration social enterprises are regarded

as a valuable resource rather than an isolated phenomenon in society. In cooperation with

both the public and private sector it is believed that work-integration social enterprises

support both business development and the establishment and growth of new compa-

nies. With their capacity to help individuals break with welfare dependency by offering

employment and self-sufficiency, Region Skane believes work integration social enterpris-

es contributes to welfare development as well as increased economic growth.100

There are about 350 work-integration social enterprises in Sweden today employing over

10 000 people. Despite much difficulty, they often collaborate with the public sector,

whilst remaining independent organisations. Furthermore, they are often organised in the

form of work cooperatives (arbetskooperativ). A common feature is also the local owner-

ship and cooperative membership amongst the employees. Work-integration social en-

terprises can be found in diverse forms of industries (e.g. crafts and manufacturing ser-

vices, recycling and welfare). They are often initiated to satisfy a local need that neither

the public nor the private sector has been able to satisfy. Support for work-integration

social enterprises usually come from the municipalities and not the government. Hence,

                                                                                                                         100  Agreement on cooperation between Region Skåne and the third sector in Skåne 2010-2014. p. 12.

28    

although labour market policies are national, work-integration social enterprises are more

commonly local initiatives with local support.101

The Swedish Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen) plays more than one role

in terms of ‘work-integration social enterprises’. However, the two roles do not comple-

ment each other. The first role is the mentioned active support of work-integration social

enterprises started by long-term unemployed people. The second and more prominent

role has to do with the so-called Phase 3 (Fas 3) – an initiative launched by the Swedish

Government in 2007. Phase 3 was launched in order to deal with the high unemployment

rates in the country (i.e. reduce social exclusion). It aims to provide long-term unem-

ployed people – the same category as the work-integration social enterprises – with work

experience and valuable networks that could lead to further employment. Phase 3 can be

described as a form of internship in which the employees are working for free while at the

same time getting compensation from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (A-kassa). To

get enrolled in Phase 3 one has to be unemployed for more than 450 days. In such case,

the Swedish Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen) provides the unemployed

with a place in one of the collaborating companies that in turn receive compensation for

each person they recruit. The compensation comes directly from the Swedish Public Em-

ployment Service. It is important to point out that although the programs – Phase 3 and

support for work-integration social enterprises – have different funding schemes. Never-

theless, the program has met lots of criticism, mainly do to the fact that some of the par-

ticipating companies have joined in merely as a means to make easy money, or so it

seams, especially since they are not obliged to offer any full time jobs after the program

has come to an end. Amongst the critics, some have argued that if work-integration social

                                                                                                                         101 Svenska Dagbladet (2014) Sociala företag bättre alternativ än Fas 3.

29    

enterprises would replace Phase 3, it would be more likely to produce real long-term

jobs.102

Social enterprises (both work-integration and other social enterprises) in Sweden vary

considerably in size and activity. The smallest have only a few employees whereas the

largest accommodates several hundred. Similarly there is a significant difference in yearly

revenues, varying from 30 000 to 30 million Swedish kronor. The social enterprises offer

services and products to the private and public as well as the civic sector. The activities

range from cleaning and janitorial services to various welfare services (i.e. healthcare, ed-

ucation and elderly care) and recycling.103 Given this background the work-integration

social enterprise Adviva 100 can be mentioned. Adviva 100 only hires people with a disa-

bility and won the price for the best Swedish social innovation in 2013.104 Another work-

integration social enterprise that has gained considerable attention lately is Malmö based

Yalla Trappan. Yalla Trappan is located in the heart of the socially disadvantaged neigh-

bourhood Rosengård in the outskirts of Malmö. Since the start in 2010 Yalla Trappan has

provided work for immigrant women who normally have difficulties establishing them-

selves on the labour market. Yalla Trappan is organised as a women´s cooperative and

built upon democratic principles such as participation, membership and solidarity. The

enterprise has 15 employees and offers a wide range of services such as catering, clean-

ing and sewing. Furthermore, it enables labour market introduction for newly arrived im-

migrant women by providing internship opportunities. What started out as a project de-

pendent on financial support from the European Social Fund, the municipality of Malmö

and ABF Malmö, has evolved into a very successful self-contained work-integration social

                                                                                                                         102  Ibid. 103 Sociala företag behövs! En skrift om sociala företag - en väg till arbete, nya affärsidéer och rehabilitering. 104 Adviva (2014) The price is given annually by The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket).

30    

enterprise.105 Despite their sewing activities only being a smaller part of their activity, it

has brought much attention Yalla Trappan due to the recently established partnership

with IKEA. The partnership means that IKEA customers can place specialised orders on

curtains and tablecloths that Yalla Trappan’s employees sew up. IKEA sends the order

from the customer to Yalla Trappan that in turn sends the order directly to the custom-

er.106

Influence of the EU and other international organisations

The social economy

Even though the concepts of social entrepreneurship, social enterprises and social innova-

tions are relatively new in Sweden the seed of the social entrepreneurship sector was

planted already during the 1970s due to the structural changes having taken taking place

within the industry, fishing industry, farming and forestry. A new type of cooperative asso-

ciations, linked to the popular movement and civil society began appearing during the

1970s and taking off during the 1980s. The new cooperative associations originally repre-

sented a local countryside bottom-up reaction to the structural changes taking place with-

in different industries resulting in closures and unemployment, threatening to depopulate

the countryside.107

With the import of the term social economy from the EU, these cooperative associations,

often focusing on a revitalisation of the countryside, became part of the social economy

at the end of the 1990s. The term social economy was brought on to the Swedish political

                                                                                                                         105 Interview with Yalla Trappan August 27th, 2014. Information also obtained from Yalla Trappan (n.d.) About Yalla Trappan. 106 Interview with Yalla Trappan August 27th, 2014. 107 Åhlander, A.-M. S. (2003) Är välfärdsstaterna Sverige och Norge på väg åt olika håll? Om den nationella politikens roll i glesbygdens utvecklingsprocesser.

31    

agenda as a result of the Extraordinary European Council Meeting on Employment in

1997.108 As a result, a working group was appointed with the task of investigating the

conditions of the social economy and its importance for society, with a specific focus on

sparsely populated areas and the countryside. As part of the task, the working group was

to come up with a suitable Swedish definition of the social economy. Also in 1997, the

social economy was for the first time referred to in a government proposition, ‘Regional

growth - for work and welfare’ (Regional tillväxt – för arbete och välfärd).109 Consequently,

the new cooperative associations that became part of the social economy initially seem to

be countryside phenomenon indicating that the subject should be of some importance to

Ministry of Rural Affairs, something that there will be an opportunity to return to later.

The working group came to settle on the definition:

“Social economy refers to organised bodies that primarily have social purpos-es, are based on democratic values and act independently of the public sector. Their social and economic activities are conducted mainly in associations, co-operatives, foundations and similar bodies. Activities in the social economy have the public good or the good of their members, not private interests, as their principal driving force”.110

This definition differs slightly from the EU definition in the sense that the Swedish one

puts more emphasis on the social rather than on the concept as a form of organisation to

improve, expand or modify the welfare.111 The notion of producing Swedish welfare with

the help of the social economy gained increased recognition.112 However, the result has

mainly come to depend on the social economy actors’ ability to combine the perfor-

                                                                                                                         108  Näringsdepartementet (1998) DS 1998:48, Social ekonomi I EU-landet Sverige – tradition och förnyelse i samma begrepp. 109 Regeringen (1997) Prop. 1997/98, Regional tillväxt – för arbete och välfärd. 110 Social ekonomi: en skrift om Regeringskansliets arbete med ett nytt begrepp. (2001). p. 10 111 Eriksson, R. (2005) p. 12. 112 Ibid. p. 13.

32    

mance of welfare services with different form of qualities, or values, which are often seen

difficult to achieve in the welfare sector. On this basis, the social economy is seen to have

been of considerable value for services in the welfare sector.113 However, it is important to

point out, that this in some ways could be described as old wine in new bottles. The phe-

nomenon did exist, but was give a new label by the EU introduction of social economy.

The enterprises within the social economy are considered primarily driven by two logics

(1) creating jobs for those outside the labour market and (2) generating services that nei-

ther the public sector nor the private market at the time can provide.114 This was evident

from the case of the new cooperative associations. The Swedish social economy as a

whole is predominantly financed by: fees, grants, sponsorships, fundraising, private com-

mercial activities, and licensed gaming and lottery activities. Money that stems from

building contractors has also been an important source of funding.115 The number of

Swedish cooperatives, mutuals, foundations and associations with a social aim, operating

within the social economy, is steadily increasing.116 In many respects, the great merger of

Swedish municipalities in 1974 has had a great impact on the development of the social

economy of today.117 This has mainly to do with the fact that the merger instigated a shift

of socio-political power from the state towards the local community118 resulting in the

aforementioned smaller public sector. As such, the social economy can be seen as a reac-

tion to and result of what some describes as a dismantling or reshaping of the welfare

state, a process which now has been on-going over the last couple of decades. 119 Conse-

                                                                                                                         113 Ibid. p. 11. 114 Wood, A. (2007) Den sociala ekonomin: En väg till arbete. p. 7. 115 Social ekonomi: en tredje sektor för välfärd, demokrati och tillväxt?: rapport från en arbetsgrupp. (1999) p. 128. 116 Eriksson, R. (2005) p. 11. 117 In this respect the notion of social economy, social entrepreneurship and social innovation refers to the same thing. 118 Agnemyr, H. & Dahlgren, B. (2011) Gör vågen! Samhällsentreprenörskap med värmländska förtecken. p. 29. 119 Åhlander, A.-M.S. (2003) p. 20.

33    

quently, the Swedish social economy can amongst other things be described as an agent

of welfare, in addition to the public and private sector.120 Despite conferences presenting

findings on practices and policies in the social enterprise sector in Europe,121, introduction

of support systems for microfinance,122 press releases,123 more recent policy documents

and directives from the EU/EC in regards to social enterprises,124 for example, EU has had

relatively little impact in terms of politics on social enterprise, social entrepreneurship and

social innovations. To this date the Swedish harvest of policies, directives and communi-

cations by Swedish Governments has been meagre. In 2007, the Government stated in a

press release that they supported social entrepreneurship, in 2008 they invested SEK 10

million, in 2010 they presented an action plan for work integration social enterprises, and

in 2011 they commissioned the Swedish Agency for Growth Policy Analysis to investigate

to what extent the social enterprises made use of and were in need of state funding. In

addition to this they were commissioned to look at the possibilities to develop the statis-

tics about social enterprises.125

Based on their investigation, the Swedish Agency for Growth Policy Analysis delivered

two main suggestions. Firstly, they suggested that the Swedish Agency for Economic and

Regional Growth (Tillväxtverket) were to maintain a register over work integration social

                                                                                                                         120 Stryjan, Y. (2005). p. 3; Åhlander, A.-M.S. (2003) p. 7, 20. 121 European Commission (2009) European Conference on Social Enterprises – Practices and Policies in the Social Enterprise Sector in Europe, 6 March 2009. 122 European Commission (n.d.) Progress Microfinance – What is Progress Microfinance? 123 European Commission (2011) Mr. László Andor, EU Commissioner responsible for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion – ’Building a social market economy in the European Union.’ Manchester Business School, Manchester, 20 Oct 2011. 124 European Commission (2011) Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions - Social Business Initiative – Creating a favourable climate for social enterprises, key stakeholders in the social economy and innovation. (COM(2011) 682 final). 125 Näringsdepartmentet (2007) Pressmeddelande 26 november: Regeringen stödjer socialt företagande.; Socialdepartementet (2008) Pressmeddelande 29 november: Regeringen satsar 10 miljoner kronor på soci-ala företag.; Näringsdepartmentet (2010) Pressmeddelande 22 april: Handlingsplan för arbetsintegrerande sociala företag.; Näringsdepartmentet (2011) Pressmeddelande 24 februari: Nytt uppdrag att utreda statliga finansieringsinstrument för sociala företag.

34    

enterprises, and secondly, that none of the existing support structures for enterprises

should be adjusted to make it easier for work integration social enterprises to gain finan-

cial support. Instead, they suggested that the possibility of a specific directed financial

support system for social enterprises ought to be investigated.

Such investigation, it was suggested, could include a comparison with other countries;

looking at how initiatives to support social enterprises by the Commissions could affect

the Swedish case; looking at regulations affecting social enterprises, looking at how state

support would be compatible with EU regulations; and looking at possibilities to improve

business administrative advice. Last but not least they pointed out the importance of de-

fining what is meant by work integration social enterprises, considering that it may either

be viewed as enterprises producing social welfare services or from a more traditional

growth oriented enterprise perspective and that potential selective support must be

judged on the basis of the political ambition before a more precise suggestions can be

made.126

Role of institutions

The welfare state

After World War II, the Social Democrats resumed their role as a permanent fixture of

Swedish politics, governing the country for several decades, all the way up to the 1970s.

A significant feature of the Social Democratic political agenda was to use the power in-

trusted in them as a government to create a network of social services and income-

security measures (i.e. pensions, sickness insurance and unemployment insurance) and

universalistic tax-based social services. Other features of the social democratic welfare

                                                                                                                         126 Tillväxtanalys (2011) Arbetsintegrerande sociala företag - användning och behov av statliga finansierings-stöd.

35    

state include active policies towards equality on the labour market (i.e. 480 days of paid

parental leave, universal access to subsidised child care from the age of one, etc.).127.

Until the early 1970s the Swedish society seemed to have found a healthy combination of

financial growth and welfare. In fact, the economy had expanded for almost a quarter of

century. During this time, social services and income transfer programs had been devel-

oped with broad domestic political support from all the parties in parliament. Labour un-

ions, working together with the Social Democrats, had increased their influence to pro-

mote their member´s interest. As a result, significant political confrontation was most of

the time avoided.128 This political system of cooperation subsequently extended to other

policy areas. A system of organised interest representation and policy implementation

developed alongside the traditional parliamentary channels. To circumvent political con-

flict by pursuing consensus, together with a pragmatism that set social peace above

commitment to ideology, all became a hallmark for the Swedish political system.129 For

the better part of the twentieth century, to achieve economic security for the worst of in

society was one of the central political issues in Sweden. More than anything else, it was

this vision that powered the Social Democrats to stay in power and to create the Swedish

welfare state. The construction of the basic structures of the welfare state was completed

in the 1970s, nearly forty years after the Social Democrats came into power.

Before World War II, the Swedish welfare sector had been having a multitude of private

service providers, for instance in the educational and the health care sector, and was in

this respect not so different from other European welfare states. The dismissal of private

providers that followed the war was the result of a conscious strategy applied by the So-

                                                                                                                         127  Esping-Andersen (1990) in: Blomqvist, P. (2005) The turn to Privatization in Swedish Welfare Services: A Matter of Ideas? p. 2. 128 Einhorn, S.E. & Logue, J. (2003) p. 19. 129 Ibid. p. 19.

36    

cial Democrats in order to construct a thoroughly planned public system of professional-

ised welfare services in health, education and various forms of social care, including child-

and elderly care. This was seen as important in order to create a welfare system guided

by the principles of social equality.130 The fight for a publicly subsidised welfare state thus

testifies to the strong ideological commitment by the Swedish Social Democratic Party,

which governed the country uninterruptedly from 1932 to 1976.131 The ideological com-

mitment implied that collective social rights were given predominance over individual

rights, and that expressions of social and cultural diversity had little or no place within the

welfare system. Neither did citizens have the right or possibility to choose between differ-

ent service establishments. Instead, they were directed to different public sector institu-

tions (i.e. schools, hospitals, care facilities etc.) in their own area of residence.132

However, during the 1990´s when the Conservative Party (i.e. Moderaterna) resumed po-

litical power the Swedish welfare system underwent radical changes and was gradually

opened up to private enterprises, competition and freedom of choice on the part of its

users. These socio-political changes represented a break with values that had previously

guided welfare service provision in Sweden for several decades.133 Although criticised by

the opposition at the time, when the Social Democratic Party regained their position as

the Swedish Government little changed. Over the last 8 years, 2006-2014, Sweden has

once again been governed by a centre right coalition (Alliansen), which in principle con-

tinued on the previously laid track. The old system has once and for all been replaced

with one where the service users’ freedom to choose service provider play a central role.

As a result, all key areas of the Swedish welfare state (i.e. childcare, primary and second-

ary education, personal social services, health care and care of the elderly) have been re-

                                                                                                                         130 Rothstein, B (1994) in: Ibid. p.3. 131 Esping-Andersen (1989) in: Ibid. p.3. 132 Esping-Andersen (1985); Olsson (1990) in: Ibid. p.3. 133 Blomqvist, P. (2005) p.1.

37    

established in an increasingly market-like setting, where public services should abandon

bureaucratic and hierarchical structures to solve problems in a more decentralised and

independent manner, commonly referred to as New Public Management (NPM).134

Still a responsibility of the State, sometimes delegated to the regions or municipalities,

the supply chain is today within several sectors open for actors from both the private as

civil society sector. In similar fashion to the question of the chicken or egg, it is hard to

determine what came first, the possibility to choose welfare supplier or the increasing

demand from the public to choose welfare supplier. Independent of the answer, the pub-

lic is increasingly demanding better quality, sometimes expressed as more freedom to

choose. 135 This does not mean that a revolution has taken place in terms of social enter-

prises entering into the welfare market. Instead, the more noticeable result from the more

open welfare service supply chain is the advance of social innovations.

Today, social innovations are visible and take place inside and outside, as well as in col-

laboration between the public sector, the private sector and civil society. In this context,

social or societal entrepreneurship has been regarded as something new and reactive,

and as an effective way to address the current situation.136 On this basis, and from a his-

torical standpoint, societal entrepreneurship as a health care provider or in collaboration

with the health care sector can be viewed as a new form of welfare ideas and as social

innovation for the twenty-first century. Examples of areas were social enterprises have

entered into the previously hands-off area of public health care is home help (CASA)137

                                                                                                                         134 Blomqvist, P. (2005) p. 5; Premfors, R. (1998) Reshaping the democratic state: Swedish experiences in a comparative perspective. p. 151; Self (1990) and Walsh (1995) in: Blomqvist, P. (2005) p.7, Green-Pedersen, C. (2002) New Public Management Reforms of the Danish and Swedish Welfare States: The Role of Different Social Democratic Responses. p. 271; Lindvall, J. & Rothstein, B. (2006) Sweden: The Fall of the Strong State. p. 60. 135 Åhlander, A.-M.S. (2003) p. 1, 17-18; Agnemyr, H. & Dahlgren, B. (2011) p. 112. 136 Gawell, Johannisson & Lundqvist (Eds.) (2009) p. 12. 137 CASA (n.d.) Hemtjänst.

38    

and dental care (Region Skåne, 2012)138. In the first case, Casa is a provider of home help

and as such replacing or assisting the public health care system in providing state funded

service. The second example is a cooperation agreement between Region Skane and City

Mission Skane. Based on existing relationships between City Mission Skane and homeless

people, the former acts as a bridge between homeless people and the public health sec-

tor to ease the point of contact for dental care. Another example of social innovation and

attempt to find new social innovations is a collaboration between Malmö University and

the City of Malmö where the two, supported by VINNOVA, have created what they call a

‘test-bed’ with the aim of developing and improving the quality of home help and elderly

care from the users’ point of view. As part of their work they are actively connect different

actors such as the users, family and relatives, citizens, the industry, the third sector, re-

searchers and personnel from the elderly care.

The education system

Entrepreneurship within the education system is not new. Already in 1989 the OECD (Or-

ganisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) addressed the issue in the re-

port: “Towards an Enterprising Culture – a Challenge for Education and Training”. At this

time a distinction was made between a narrow and a broad understanding of entrepre-

neurship. The narrow understanding implied the practical dimensions on how to start a

business or a company whereas the broader one referred to the stimulation of future skills

in order for individuals to act from an entrepreneurial frame of mind (i.e. taking own re-

sponsibility, executing ideas in practice and being creative).139 Both understandings have

gained approximately the equal amount of influence within the Swedish school system.140

                                                                                                                         138  Region Skåne (2012) Överenskommelse om idéburet offentligt partnerskap. 139 Björk, J., Ekmark, E., Levin, C. (2013) Reading material for school personnel on Entrepreneurial learning. p. 6. 140 Interview with the Swedish National Agency for Education. Conducted August 15th, 2014.

39    

In 2009 the Ministry of Education and Research (Utbildningsdepartementet) and the Min-

istry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications (Näringsdepartementet) launched a na-

tional strategy for entrepreneurship in the field of education describing measures aimed

at encouraging the integration of entrepreneurship into all levels of education.141 Accord-

ing to the strategy, education that inspires entrepreneurship can provide young people

with the skills and enthusiasm needed in order to develop and start new businesses,

which is seen as means to boost the country’s competitiveness on a global level and a

way to strengthening the Swedish economy. In general, a vast majority of young Swedes

are said to be positive to the idea of starting up their own business, but hesitate because

they feel they lack the know how to invest in their own ideas. Entrepreneurship education

is supposed to fill this gap and help young people developing the knowledge required to

make this kind of investment.142 As a result, the Government commissioned the National

Agency of Education to stimulated work on entrepreneurship in schools. It has since pro-

duced support material exemplifying how entrepreneurship can be included in the teach-

ing, as well as provided funding opportunities for the individual schools to apply for to

implement special entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial activities at all levels in

schools.143 According to the most recent curriculum for primary and lower-secondary

school, secondary school and sixth-form college:

The school shall stimulate the pupils’ creativity, curiosity and self-confidence, as well as

their will to try new ideas and to solve problems. The pupils are to be given possibilities

to take initiative and responsibility to develop their abilities to work both independently

and as part of a group. The school shall thereby contribute to the pupils’ development of

an approach supporting entrepreneurship, enterprising and innovative thinking. The pu-

                                                                                                                         141  Regeringskansliet (2009) Strategy for entrepreneurship in the field of education. 142 Regeringskansliet (2009) Strategy for entrepreneurship in the field of education. 143 Skolverket (2010) Entreprenörskap i skolan. ; Entreprenörskap. Available from: http://www.skolverket.se/skolutveckling/larande/entreprenorskap.

40    

pil’s possibilities to start and run a company are thereby increased. Entrepreneurial traits

are valuable for the working life, societal life and further studies (italicised part of text only

applies to sixth-form college).144

Hence, entrepreneurship education should both lead to pupils developing generic skills

useful in their societal lives and more specific skills and knowledge to start and run enter-

prises.

Despite the curriculum being a compulsory steering document, the schools and teachers

are free to interpret and decide how to work with entrepreneurship, as tools, material,

methods.

Furthermore, in the strategy from 2009, it is stressed that the schools need to collaborate

more with all sectors of society, especially with the private sector to get inspiration from

actual entrepreneurs.145 In line with this, Young Entrepreneurship (Ung Företagsverksam-

het, UF) can be mentioned. Young Entrepreneurship is a not-for-profit and independent

organisation with the aim to integrate a more “practical” dimension of entrepreneurship

into the curriculum of the Swedish school system. Young Entrepreneurship gives students

the opportunity to practice and develop their entrepreneurial skills by helping them start,

run and terminate their own business. The organisation operates nationwide and consists

of 24 regional associations and 100 staff members. Furthermore, the organisation is sup-

ported by public funds, trusts, foundations and the private sector.146 A major founder,

however, is the Swedish government. During the year of 2014 it distributed nearly 11 mil-

lion SEK to Young Entrepreneurship.147 The distribution is regulated by ordinance

2011:192 (Förordning om statsbidrag för entreprenörskap i skolan) which aims to promote

                                                                                                                         144  Skolverket (2011) Läroplan för grundskolan, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet 2011.; Skolverket (2011) Läroplan, examensmål och gymnasiegemensamma ämnen för gymnasieskola 2011. 145 Ibid. 146 Ung Företagsamhet (n.d.) Om oss. 147 Interview with the Ministry of Education and Research. Conducted September 16th, 2014.

41    

entrepreneurship through government subsidies.148 The ordinance, together with the

launch of a national strategy on entrepreneurship as an educational tool, shows that en-

trepreneurship as a subject gains quite the influence within the Swedish curriculum today.

However, social entrepreneurship is nowhere to be found in the different curriculums.

Hence, it is no surprise that the subject it is fairly marginalised.149 According to the Swe-

dish National Agency for Education and the Ministry of Education and Research, social

entrepreneurship is not an explicit subject within the Swedish curriculum for the reason

that entrepreneurship in broad terms implies not only economic aspects of business, but

also social and organic. As a result neither the Ministry of Education and Research nor the

National Agency for Education have seen the need to make a distinction between entre-

preneurship on the one hand and social entrepreneurship on the other. Rather they con-

stitute two sides of the same coin.150 This perception could be regarded as somewhat of a

paradox given the fact that the Swedish education system is considered to comply with

EU regulations, including Horizon 2020 which explicitly focus on innovations / entrepre-

neurship as a means to tackle societal challenges in Europe.151 Furthermore, it is worth

noticing that educational programmes addressing social entrepreneurship do exist in oth-

er EU member states, such as Asturias: Programme Young Social Entrepreneurs and Ex-

tremadura: Programme Imagine your own enterprise, both from Spain. Other pro-

grammes, such as in Lithuania and Romania, although less explicit, talk about entrepre-

neurship in connection to social development.152

                                                                                                                         148 Svensk författningssamling 2011:192. 149 Interview with the Ministry of Education and Research September 16th 2014; Interview with The Swedish National Agency for Education August 15th, 2014; Interview with the Glocal Folk High School in Malmö, September 3rd, 2014. 150 Interview with the Ministry of Education and Research September 16th 2014; the Swedish National Agen-cy for Education August 15th, 2014. 151 Horizon 2020. The EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. 152  European Commission (2012) Entrepreneurship Education at School in Europe – National Strategies, Curricula and Learning Outcomes.

42    

The Swedish higher education system, made up of universities and university colleges,

provides a large number or courses addressing entrepreneurship. Currently, there 142

courses addressing entrepreneurship, 59 courses of these courses have an explicit focus

on entrepreneurship, but only three of these courses have an explicit focus on either soci-

etal entrepreneurship (samhällsentreprenörskap) or social entrepreneurship (socialt entre-

prenörskap).153 However, in 2008 the Knowledge Foundation (KK-stiftelsen) launched a

programme for societal entrepreneurship. The programme was divided into research,

skills development and ‘to spread the word’ about societal entrepreneurship. In 2009 the

Knowledge Foundation chose Malmö University and Mid Sweden University to jointly run

the Forum for social innovation and social entrepreneurship (Mötesplats för social innova-

tion och samhällsentreprenörskap) during a period of two years. Forum for social innova-

tion (Mötesplats för social innovation) has since 2012 been funded by Malmö University

and Region Skane as a national knowledge platform for social innovation and societal en-

trepreneurship. 154 The platform is placed and partly funded by a university, but the roll of

educator should not be understood exclusively in the university context, but also as

reaching out to the remaining society. As another example of taking on a more inclusive

and outreaching roll, typical for the newer universities and university colleges, Malmö

University and the Glocal Folk High School (Glokala Folkhögskolan), an independent adult

education college in Malmö, offer joint courses in social entrepreneurship.155 Summa

summarum, albeit still on a small scale and mainly on a university level, social entrepre-

neurship and social innovation, sometimes as a separate topic and sometimes as sub-

topics, have entered into the Swedish school system.

                                                                                                                         153 Search engine: www.Studera.nu 154 If using entrepreneurship as key word when searching the Swedish search engine and university applica-tion tool (Studera.nu) one gets 142 hits. However, curriculums are seldom detailed enough to establish which sub-topics and themes that are addressed in each individual course. Hence, the reason for focusing on course titles is one of convenience. 155 Glokala Folkhögskolan (2014).

43    

Concluding words

Consequently, social entrepreneurship is not new to Sweden. Swedish as well as non-

Swedish researchers have written about social entrepreneurship in Sweden during ap-

proximately the last 25 years. Some of them are found in the reference list of this report.

At a first glance, the most distinctive about the output is the variety of terms used to de-

scribe different expressions of social entrepreneurship. Here, as in every other academic

field, one find a mixture of a necessity to distinguish variations of similar phenomena and

a necessity amongst academics to distinguish themselves from their peers. This was illus-

trated under the heading The landscape of social entrepreneurship when looking at the

different types of social entrepreneurial activities in Sweden.

However, the political awareness of and reaction to social entrepreneurship is a more re-

cent, less developed and ambiguous. Despite and probably because of this, the current

situation of social entrepreneurship, innovation and enterprises in Sweden comes across,

at the same time, as both promising and hampered. What early on only could be de-

scribed as watertight bulkheads have due to political decisions opened up and given way

to collaborations between the civic, private and the public sector. The examples are far

from plenty, but they do exist. Where some representatives from the support structure –

academia, organisations financing projects, start-up support structure – argue that the

lack of clear cut definitions might actually benefit entrepreneurial initiatives, instead of

restraining them. Others believe that funding system and support structures need official

definitions to finance different social entrepreneurship, innovation and enterprise initia-

tives and activities.

Based on the material and information collected for this report, we believe that is a need

for participatory action research specifically focusing on explicating and integrating the

political agenda with support structures and the need of social entrepreneurs.

44    

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56    

Appendix 1. List of conducted interviews

National authorities (7)

The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth, conducted June 3rd, 2014.

The Swedish National Agency for Education, conducted August 15th, 2014.

The Swedish Public Employment Service, conducted August 22nd, 2014.

Ministry of Enterprises, Energy and Communication, conducted August 27th, 2014.

The Swedish ESF Council, conducted August 28th, 2014.

The Ministry of Education and Research, conducted September 16th, 2014.

Sweden´s Innovation Agency (VINNOVA), conducted September 16th, 2014.

Local authorities and regions (2)

The Municipality of Malmö, conducted September 5th, 2014.

Region Scania, conducted September 23rd, 2014.

Organisations (9)

Social Entrepreneurship Forum, conducted June 4th, 2014.

Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions, conducted June 4th, 2014.

Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, conducted August 15th, 2014.

Coompanion, conducted August 18th, 2014.

Growth Malmö, conducted August 27th, 2014.

City Mission Scania, conducted August 28th, 2014.

Organisation NETWORK – Idea-based sector Scania, conducted September 4th, 2014.

Centrum for Public Entrepreneurship, conducted September 4th, 2014.

Lund University Social Innovation Center (LUSIC), conducted September 17th, 2014.

Social Enterprises (2)

Yalla Trappan, conducted August 27th, 2014.

City Mission Skane, conducted August 28th, 2014.

Other (2)

The Glocal Folk High School, conducted September 3rd, 2014.

57    

Malmö University, conducted September 29th, 2014