Social Entrepreneurship in Germany

The concept of social entrepreneurship (SE) has been contested and criticized as ambiguous. Applying discourse analysis to the study of newspaper articles, Philipp Kenel traces the popular media representation of SE in Germany over time (1999-2021) and makes an important empirical contribution to the sociological understanding of the phenomenon. He shows that, while until 2008 SE was mainly understood as a reform of the welfare infrastructure, it was then increasingly conceptualised as part of the economy. More recently, social entrepreneurship has both been framed as part of the 'start-up' world and as contributing factor to social and ecological transformation.