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7: Argentina
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mario m. roitter & alejandra vivas Argentina 7This chapter describes and analyzes some characteristics of social enterprises that have appeared in Argentina over the last few years in response to social concerns that have a√ected the country. Broadly speaking, social enterprise, as used in this chapter, refers to any private activity that is conducted by some form of organizational management that seeks to benefit a collective interest. The principal objective is not to obtain the highest possible profit but, rather, to fulfill certain economic and social objectives and to provide innovative solutions to the questions of social exclusion and unemployment through the production of goods and services. The initial section of the chapter provides an overview of both the appearance of these various organizational experiences at di√erent historical moments and the criteria by which these experiences are defined. The second section examines the long history of cooperatives in Argentina and their development through time. The third and final section analyzes one particular form of organization: enterprises recovered and managed by their workers, known in Argentina as recuperated companies. Although most of these enterprises have the legal status of cooperatives, the process by which they emerge has its own particular characteristics as well as its own operating rules and, on occasion, its own forms of distributing profit. social enterprises in argentina The first examples of social enterprise organizations in Argentina appeared in the nineteenth century. These organizations took on the following two institutional forms: cooperatives, which emerged in rural areas at the end of that century to support initiatives by European immigrants; and mutual benefit societies, which developed based on the values of solidarity, self-help, and mutual help. The development of mutual benefit societies in Argentina during the twentieth century was tied to the work- 140 social enterprise ing sectors of the population, who were mainly immigrants and brought with them the influence of the European tradition (unions, Roman collegia , guilds, etc.). The best-known mutual benefit societies were those that provided insurance, burial and health services, and other forms of economic assistance. Cooperatives and mutual benefit societies have common roots and are manifestations of the same concept, which is based on voluntary commitment, democratic organization, collective e√ort, and institutional neutrality. Having acknowledged that these organizations are foundational to the social economy,∞ the so-called ‘‘new social economy’’ must now also be included in the analysis. Social enterprises are a central component of the social economy. Their growth has been particularly strong since the 1990s, and new kinds of social enterprises have appeared in recent years. This constellation of organizations is made up of many heterogeneous enterprises, ranging from small-scale collective manufacturing businesses, microcredit programs, and sports and cultural organizations to companies managed by their workers and market-oriented initiatives managed by nonprofit organizations, generally in association with corporations .≤ This extensive group of organizations is the result of strategies based on cooperation, solidarity, and self-management that have been adopted with varying impacts by di√erent groups. To a large extent, the space occupied today by social enterprises appeared and grew as an alternative to unemployment and social exclusion in Argentina. Their activities highlight problems related to poverty, income inequalities, and production conditions that were no longer being addressed by the economic sphere and the public sector. Regarding this, Defourny (1992) proposes that political conditions favoring the recognition of these social enterprises appeared as a result of both the crisis in the welfare state of developed capitalist economies and the failure of centralized socialism. For decades the management of social a√airs had been thought of and organized within the framework of an ever-growing intervention by public powers. But because of the latter’s lack of concern and the impossibility of referring to existing socialist systems with any real credibility, an ideological vacuum was left that simultaneously opened up areas of activity where the social economy, already present for some time, has been able to make a contribution and be better understood. Social enterprises have several main characteristics that di√erentiate [44.221.87.114] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 08:24 GMT) roitter and vivas, Argentina 141 them from other economic sectors. First, most social enterprises tend to be undertaken by a group of citizens with some collective interest, such as a group of unemployed persons, neighbors, or workers who take over the enterprise at which they once worked. Second, although their principal activity...