Socijalna poduzeća za radnu integraciju (WISE) u postsocijalističkim zemljama

Abstract

The welfare state takes a stand against the demands of modernization by seeking to care for society’s most vulnerable groups. People with disabilities are in a particularly vulnerable position, facing numerous obstacles to the labor market. Social enterprises, especially work integration social enterprises (WISE), can provide an important access point for their integration. The present analysis of five post-socialist countries in the European Union – Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Croatia – identifies several general characteristics essential for WISE development, such as the existence of some form of financing as well as certain legislative and institutional frameworks that remain underdeveloped. Lack of awareness and promotion of WISEs as well as a shortage of necessary skills have delayed WISE development in these countries, particularly in Croatia, where WISEs are few with small numbers of employees. This study provides recommendations for improving the situation of WISEs in Croatia in order to help them facilitate the employment and social inclusion of people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups.

Performance of work integration social enterprises in Croatia, Slovenia, and Italian regions of Lombardy and Trentino

“…Regarding a brief presentation of concrete/tangible previous research findings on the subject, there has been a lack of systematic and comparative research of organizations in Europe. A rare bright spot in the field is a recent conceptual paper, an overview of the WISE scene in several post-socialist Central European countries (Marković, Baturina & Babić, 2017), a study on comparison between European and non-European WISEs (Laratta, 2015), and two EU-supported research projects that provided the first comparative analysis of WISEs across more than ten European countries ("ELEXIES" (2009); "The Socio-Economic Performance of Social Enterprises in the Field of Integration by Work" (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)). Furthermore, several noncomparative studies on the socio-economic dimension of European WISEs need to be emphasized: Džunić, Stanković & Janković-Milić (2018) evaluated organizational effectiveness; Ramus, La Cara, Vaccaro & Brusoni (2018) explored innovation strategies useful at turbulent times; Avilés, Adam, Amstutz, Cavedon, Ferrari, Lucchini, Schmitz & Wüthrich (2017) conducted a study on the success factors of WISEs; Battilana, Sengul, Pache & Model (2015) investigated ways to harness productive tensions at WISEs; Kuosmanen (2014) investigated the process of establishing organisational legitimacy; Hazenberg, Seddon & Simon (2014) explored the performance of a WISE in the context of its organisational aims, values, and structures; Katz (2014) explored strategies for creating good jobs for people with disabilities; while Bode, Evers & Schulz (2004) conducted research on ways to face new challenges for WISEs.…”

Work Integration Social Entrepreneurship in East-Central Europe Through Structural and Semiotic Transformations

“…In some countries, work integration organisations intended for the people with disabilities still operated but in the context of communist ideology. In Croatia and Slovenia, for instance, there was a tradition of organisations employing and taking care for disabled in the communist regime, but with no direct connection to social entrepreneurship [Marković et al, 2017].…”

“…This can be mostly explained by the fact that neither of the two previous major transformations favoured the principles of social entrepreneurship. It has been argued that the development of WISEs in that region has been a consequence of the cognitive Europeanization, the dominance of new discourses, and the availability of financial funds [Marković et al, 2017] Although unlike other countries in East-Central Europe, Poland started to evolve the legislation-institutional framework regarding WISEs already in the 1990s, it was the country's accession to the European Union in 2004 that can be seen as a major turning point for the development of WISEs and social entrepreneurship in general. In a relatively short time, legal regulations were introduced to specify important social and economic aspects of activities carried out by social economy entities.…”

“…While most of East-Central Europe was at the semi-periphery of the Western part in the 19 th century [Adam et al 2005], the consolidation of communist ideology after World War II represented a tremendous impediment to the development of social entrepreneurship. As Marković et al emphasise [Marković et al, 2017], the emergence of the civil sector was delayed, as repressive regimes suppressed and marginalised civil society. Often, its activities were shadowed by the label of quasi-governmental agencies, severely controlled by the communist party [Bežovan, Zrinščak, 2007;Ciepielewska-Kowalik et al, 2015;Marković et al, 2017: 141].…”

“…Often, its activities were shadowed by the label of quasi-governmental agencies, severely controlled by the communist party [Bežovan, Zrinščak, 2007;Ciepielewska-Kowalik et al, 2015;Marković et al, 2017: 141]. With the process of democratisation, decentralisation, and the transformation of social welfare in the late 1980s and the 1990s, WISEs were given impetus [Ciepielewska-Kowalik et al, 2015;Marković et al, 2017]. However, one can find different levels of developmental performance even within the East-Central European region, which is due to distinctive pre-communist past, different communist regimes, i. e. Stalinism or Titoism, and transition paths.…”