The social enterprise ecosystem in England: An increasingly ‘private-macro’ social economy distorted by policy

Prior research exploring European social enterprise ecosystems identified four main ecosystem types: Statist-macro; Statist-micro; Private-macro; and Private-micro. This paper seeks to explore the English ecosystem’s development into an increasingly Private-macro type, focused on decreasing pluralism and increasing marketisation. The paper applies Weberian views of power, to argue that dominant stakeholders utilise their networks to create a dominant discourse that extends the Private-macro ecosystem type in England. The research utilises data gathered from 23 participants (stakeholders from the social enterprise ecosystem) in the form of semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The results demonstrate the ongoing neoliberal marketisation of the English ecosystem.