Social enterprise and their eco-system: A European mapping report of Portugal

This report is part of the study “Social enterprises and their ecosystems in Europe” and it provides an overview of the social enterprise landscape in Portugal based on available information as of December 2018.

Until recently, the term “social enterprise” was almost absent in political and practitioners’ discourses. The term first emerged in international research projects, though it did not gain traction on the ground.

The concept of social enterprise finds use in five different traditions. Social solidarity cooperatives associated to the cooperative/social economy tradition, social insertion enterprises mostly created and sustained by employment promotion public policies in partnership with non-profit organisations (NPOs), and a charitable tradition in the statute of Private Institutions of Social Solidarity (Instituição Particular de Solidariedade Social or IPSSs) and similar NPOs operating in welfare, and social solidarity enterprises, related to a voluntary engagement tradition. And yet, these organisations rarely describe themselves as social enterprises…