社會企業的社會面向初探

社會企業近來受到各界人士的熱烈討論，將其視為處理社會問題的新契機。然而，社會企業融合了「社會」與「企業」兩種內在可能衝突的本質，加上社會企業在世界各國皆有其發展特色，對其本質或定義並無明確共識。本研究發現目前社會企業的研究與討論多著墨於其「企業」面向，而「社會」面向不是遭到忽略，就是被當成已知的常識，未經審視即加以運用，因此目前許多社會企業定義發生「套套邏輯」(tautology)與「獨白」 (monological)的謬誤。本研究以質性研究法，對社會企業的「社會」面向分析歸納，從社會企業的服務與行動出發，疏理其背後的意義，最後從意義歸納出社會企業的「社會」面向。本研究歸納社會企業的社會概念包括了互為主體、共善性、價值、對話、賦能、空間性和時間性這七個面向，其整體意涵為「在特定時間和空間裡的一群人(雖然可能各有不同的價值信念)，但(或多或少)願意付出努力維護其價值與信念，透過對話與賦權，尋求互為主體與共善的實踐。」

關鍵字

社會企業；社會；對話；互為主體；賦權

並列摘要

Social enterprises recently have been lively discussed among all sectors, the government and nonprofit organizations treat them as a new alternative solution of invested policies and public donation to deal with social problems. However, social enterprises consist of two innate characters - ＂social＂ and ＂enterprise＂ -which may be conflict to each other. In addition, social enterprises worldwide have developed distinctively; therefore there is no clear consensus on the nature or definition of social enterprise. In this study, observations showing that the current studies and discussions on social enterprises tend to focus on the ＂enterprise＂ aspect, while the ＂social＂ aspect is usually assumed without being carefully looked at, as it has been either ignored or known as a common sense. As the result, ＂tautology＂ and ＂monological＂ fallacy occurs when defining social enterprises. This study attempts to improve the way to define social enterprises. The definition was conducted according to the ＂social＂ aspect of the social enterprises rather than the social issues they are handling. In this study, qualitative research method was adopted to analyze and to induct the ＂social＂ aspect of the social enterprises. The analysis began with the phenomenon of social enterprise, identifying their services and actions. The social significance behind the theme was therefore explored. Finally, the dimensions of ＂social＂ were inducted based on the social significance. In this study, the analytical induction of the ＂social＂ concept of social enterprises was consisted of seven dimensions - inter-subjectivity, common good, value, empowerment, dialogue, spatial and temporal, which then defined ＂social＂ as ＂a relatively identifiable group of people, who hold values and beliefs (the values and beliefs held by different people may be different) and (to some extent) are willing to make efforts to act upon their values and beliefs, to pursue the actualization of inter-subjectivity and common good through the approaches of dialogue and empowerment, in a specific temporal and spatial context.＂