Purpose: This paper examines the discourses that influence policy and practice in social enterprises. In institutional circles, arguments are shaped by the desire to protect assets for the community, while entrepreneurial discourses favour a mixture of investment sources, surplus sharing and inclusive systems of governance. A critique is outlined that challenges policy-makers and academics to move beyond the heated debate on "business-like" activity through a deeper understanding of the social relations entered into (and created by) different social entrepreneurial activities.Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper is wholly theoretical. Firstly, contradictions are exposed through a review of practitioner and scholarly literature. Thereafter, empirically grounded studies are used to develop a theoretical model that accommodates and accounts for diverse practices. A broader perspective, that views human behaviour as a product of, and support system for, our socio-sexual choices, is deployed to extend understanding of social capital. By integrating this into governance theory, workplaces come to be seen as complex centres of community-building replete with economic and social goals. The concept of "social rationality" is elaborated as an alternative way to understand the legitimacy of social entrepreneurial activity and management practice.Originality/Value: The paper concludes by developing a framework and typology that theorises social enterprise as a heterogeneous business movement. Each form of social enterprise integrates socially rational thinking into its policies and practices. This suggests a different educational agenda for social entrepreneurs oriented towards the equitable distribution, and not accumulation, of social and economic capital.

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Concepts of social enterprise have been debated repeatedly, and continue to cause confusion. In this paper, a meta-theoretical framework is developed through discussion of individualist and communitarian philosophy. Philosophers from both traditions build social theories that emphasise either consensus (a unitarist outlook) or diversity (a pluralist outlook). The various discourses in corporate governance reflect these assumptions and create four distinct approaches that impact on the relationship between capital and labour. In rejecting the traditional discourse of private enterprise, social enterprises have adopted other approaches to tackle social exclusion, each derived from different underlying beliefs about the purpose of enterprise and the nature of governance. The theoretical framework offers a way to understand the diversity found within the sector, including the newly constituted Community Interest Company (CIC).Dr Rory Ridley-Duff is a writer/consultant/lecturer whose doctoral research establishes how friendship, courtship and parental interests shape entrepreneurship and systems of governance. His research into social enterprise evolved out of directorships in two employee-controlled businesses combined with 15 years of consultancy work in the social economy. For his doctoral research, he undertook a critical ethnography while assisting a private company to become an employee-owned business. He has also worked with social entrepreneurs on the start up of charitable and trading organisations.1

Purpose -In response to calls to critically analyse and conceptually advance social enterprise, the purpose of this paper is to examine narratives and models representing a spectrum of social enterprise from the "social" to the "economic". The paper tests these against the experience of practitioners who were either employees in social organisations or support workers tasked with promoting social enterprise. This is timely against a background of imperatives from central governments for social organisations to compete for the delivery of public services and become more "entrepreneurial". Design/methodology/approach -The paper reports qualitative research in which participants were invited to draw lines and arrows onto spectrum models to illustrate the social and economic contexts they perceived themselves to be working within. The data comprise interviews and drawings, combined with verbal descriptions of the drawings and reflections on their significance. Findings -The paper shows how participants interpreted the "social" and "economic" of social enterprise in pictures and words. The research suggests that social enterprise can not be told as a single narrative but as a set of little stories showing oscillations, contradictions and paradox. Research limitations/implications -Understanding of social enterprise can be much improved by giving greater recognition to ambiguities and compromises within the lived experience of contemporary practice. Originality/value -The article offers new reflection on widely used images that represent social enterprise along a dichotomous, polar spectrum from social to economic.

ABSTRACTi rj_614 106..123 This article examines alternative approaches to conflict resolution by developing a theoretical framework that relates dispute resolution practice to philosophical assumptions about authority and knowledge. By investigating the assumptions underpinning interest-based bargaining and mediation their link to direct democracy and challenge to managerial authority are revealed at the level of theory and practice.