Social Enterprise in Denmark: Emerging, Institutionalized or Colonized?

However, the question addressed in this paper pinpoints if social enterprise and social entrepreneur-ship after a few decades of emergence have now started to move into a period of more conventional Denmark –as well as the Nordic countries - represent an interesting case of the history and development of social entrepreneurship and social enterprises. In the early days of the welfare state, civil society, and popular mass movements such as the labor movement and co-operatives played a significant part in paving the way for the Nordic solidaristic welfare state. As the welfare state grew, civil society organizations and co-operatives lost ground, to a certain extent. During the recent decades, the welfare state has been reconfigured – and at the same time, the concepts social entrepreneurship and social enterprises have gained attention. The Nordic context, with extensive public welfare structures and a high degree of citizens’ participation in public affairs, affect the emergence and the development of social entrepreneurship and social enterprises slightly differently than countries with other types of social contracts. It further seems that the leading narratives and discourses that has shaped the Nordic societies, also shape the narratives of social entrepreneurship and social enterprises in combination with the institutional structures and the eco-system (Andersen, Gawell, & Spear, 2016).