The Marketization and Privatization of Social Welfare and Work Integration Social Enterprise

: A New Perspective on Social Welfare Organization.

Abstract

In this paper, which focuses on work integration social enterprises （WISEs）, I will make three assertions, based on third sector theory, about the marketization and privatization of social welfare. First, it has become important to analyze the varieties of organizations engaged in social welfare because the proportion of in―kind benefits in social expenditure increases in developed countries. This approach, which is based on sectors such as the “non―profit sector” or the “for―profit sector” （I call this framework “sector essentialism”）, encounters difficulties when we analyze the relationship between the various social welfare organizations and the outcomes of social policies. Second, the “institutional logic model,” which is based on neo―institutionalism in organization studies, could be an important analytical tool to replace “sector essentialism” as the new framework for the analysis of social welfare organizations. The “institutional logic model” is a framework that separates social normativity or rationality from the organizational form to deliver an analysis of a variety of social welfare organizations, including WISEs. Third, by applying the “institutional logic model” to the activation policies, WISEs can be divided into two types of organizational forms, which follow different sets of “institutional logics.” This distinction provides important theoretical and policy implications.