Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SoEco4Dev (Social Economy Enterprises for Development and Democracy)
Reporting period: 2023-09-01 to 2025-08-31
The project Social Economy Enterprises for Development and Democracy (SoEco4Dev) was carried out in the context of democratic backsliding and persistent development challenges in post-Soviet countries. Traditional EU development cooperation strategies have largely relied on two key domestic actors such as civil society organisations (CSOs) and private enterprises as local pillars of democratisation. However, both are now constrained: CSOs face a sustained “shrinking civic space,” and private firms struggle under conditions of political instability, weak institutions, and unpredictable policy environments.
In this context, the project examined the potential of social and solidarity economy organisations (SSEOs) that are recognised in the EU Social Economy Action Plan as engines of inclusive growth, innovation, and democratic participation. These include cooperatives, associations, mutual societies, foundations, social enterprises, and self-help groups. Focusing on the entrepreneurial forms of SSEOs, particularly social enterprises, SoEco4Dev aimed to understand how such organisations can simultaneously advance local development and contribute to democratic resilience.
In this context, the project examined the potential of social and solidarity economy organisations (SSEOs) that are recognised in the EU Social Economy Action Plan as engines of inclusive growth, innovation, and democratic participation. These include cooperatives, associations, mutual societies, foundations, social enterprises, and self-help groups. Focusing on the entrepreneurial forms of SSEOs, particularly social enterprises, SoEco4Dev aimed to understand how such organisations can simultaneously advance local development and contribute to democratic resilience.
The project adopted a qualitative and inductive research design to explore how social enterprises contribute to democratization in challenging political and institutional contexts. In the first stage of the data collection, empirical data were collected through semi-structured interviews, focus groups, field observations, and site visits involving social entrepreneurs, employees, beneficiaries, and policy stakeholders. During the second stage, an in-depth case studies were conducted in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, two post-Soviet countries with distinct political and socio-economic trajectories. Throughout the project, the research analysed the landscape of social enterprises and their institutional environments in both countries, with particular attention to the mechanisms through which these organisations contribute to democratisation. One research article has been accepted; it examines, through an institutional theoretical framework, how context-specific entrepreneurial practices enable social enterprises to navigate political environments while maintaining their social missions. Another article on organizational democratic practices embedded in their daily operations, such as participatory decision making and inclusion is currently being developed and prepared for the submission. The project facilitated the development of a few other academic papers that are currently in preparation.
Our research makes important scholarly contributions to both organization studies and the political science literature and highlights novel interdisciplinary directions for future research. Within the field of organization studies, existing research has primarily focused on workplace democracy and internal organizational governance, while our work extends this discussion by examining how organizations can play a broader role in processes of democratization beyond their organizational boundaries. In doing so, we bring new regional perspectives from under-explored post-Soviet countries – Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. In the field of political science, our study offers valuable organizational-level insights into democratization processes of social enterprises by drawing attention to a wider range of organizational actors beyond traditional civil society actors. Specifically, our research seeks to deepen the understanding of how social enterprises contribute to democratization, not only through direct engagement in the political arena but also by undertaking a crucial set of preparatory actions that enable and support democratic processes.