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The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of social enterprises in building social capital and strengthening social bonds.

The analysis is based on the comparative method. The author compares the development of social entrepreneurship of the “old” social economy (born on the turn of nineteenth and twentieth centuries), and of the “new” social economy (developing on the turn of twentieth and twenty-first centuries); and the functioning of social enterprises of two kinds: work integration social enterprises (WISEs) and community-based social enterprises (CBSEs). Moreover, he distinguishes between economic and social re-integration; and reciprocity and vertical inclusion.

The paper presents WISEs and CBSEs as tools of two different activation programmes: WISEs improve the employability of individuals who are marginalized in the labour market, while CBSEs serve as vehicles for the socio-economic development of the marginalized communities and territories. Furthermore, the author clarifies two methods of inclusion: through strengthening horizontal social ties (realized mainly by CBSEs, with their mutuality principle as a basis for building relations between participants) and building vertical social bonds (mainly by WISEs, based on the “inclusion of excluded” formula).

The paper stresses the importance of focusing research into social entrepreneurship on the role of social enterprises in shaping social bonds as well as using and producing of social capital of two main types: bonding and bridging.

Recommendations for managing social enterprises as hybrid entities. The author argues that the most effective approach (in producing social value-added) is to combine the formula of the re-integration of individuals excluded from the labour market with the efforts to develop the whole local communities from marginalized territories.

The author uses sociological perspectives in analysing economic entities and activation policies.

The purpose of this paper is to study the main determinants of the development of social economy in Poland; introduction to Polish socio-economic system, and identifying the institutional and cultural barriers to its development.

First, the paper presents the historical and institutional determinants of Polish social economy; second, it sets out the problems faced by post-transitional social economy. The approach to this issue takes a diversified form: it includes a political science approach (in describing the institutional determinants of social economy), a sociological approach (when it refers to sociological surveys and studies of Polish society), and a philosophical analysis (in considering the normative implications of introducing socio-economic institutions, describing their advantages and disadvantages).

The theses of the paper state that: first, in the case of social economy, the Polish legal system anticipates social consciousness; in consequence, it does not contribute significantly to an increase in the number of socio-economic enterprises; second, institutional barriers to socio-economic development are derivative of cultural barriers.

The subject of the paper helps to explain and analyze Poland’s transformation.

Recommendations for further development of social economy in Poland given as a conclusion to the paper.

The paper combines descriptive and normative accounts of Polish social economy, summarizing its character and limitations as those have been identified by major Polish scholars, adding two theses not previously found in the scholarly literature, and presenting practical recommendations for development of social economy in Poland.