Public policies and work integration social enterprises: the challenges of institutionalism in a neoliberal era.

One particular field of Social Enterprise – WISEs or Work Integration Social Enterprises – has become increasingly recognised as being emblematic of the dynamics of social enterprises and now constitutes a major sphere of their activity globally. From their early roots, focusing on providing productive activity for the blind and those with other physical and/or intellectual disabilities, WISEs are pioneers in promoting the integration of excluded persons through a productive activity. In recent decades, WISEs have incrementally evolved as a tool for implementing national and regional labour market policies. The papers in this special edition explore how populations of WISEs in different country contexts have emerged, and in some instances, shifted in their identities over time in relation to changing national or regional public policies. This special issue is part of the ICSEM project, a worldwide research project aiming to identify, analyze and compare social enterprise models across countries, regions and fields. The special issue features five country specific analyses from the first stage of the ICSEM project where researchers focusing on WISEs examined the policy environment surrounding WISEs and the heterogeneity of the organizational WISE models that have emerged in different contexts: Ireland, the United States, Japan, Austria and Switzerland.

The impact of new public management on the roles of elected councillors, management and the community sector in Irish local government: a case study of Cork County Council

The fundamental aim of this thesis is to examine the effect of New Public Management (NPM) on the traditional roles of elected representatives, management and community activists in Irish local government. This will be achieved through a case study analysis of one local authority, Cork County Council. NPM promises greater democracy in decision-making. Therefore, one can hypothesise that the roles of the three key groupings identified will become more influenced by principles of participatory decision-making. Thus, a number of related questions will be addressed by this work, such as, have the local elected representatives been empowered by NPM? Has a managerial revolution taken place? Has local democracy been enhanced by more effective community participation? It will be seen in chapter 2 that these questions have not been adequately addressed to date in NPM literature. The three groups identified can be regarded as stakeholders although the researcher is cautious in using this term because of its value-laden nature. Essentially, in terms of Cork County Council, stakeholders can be defined as decision-makers and people within the organization and its environment who are interested in or could be affected directly or indirectly by organizational performance. This is an all-embracing definition and includes all citizens, residents, community groups and client organizations. It is in this context that the term 'stakeholder' should be understood when it is occasionally used in this thesis. In this case, the perceptions of elected councilors, management and community representatives with regard to their changing roles are as significant as the changes themselves. The chapter begins with a brief account of the background to this research. This is followed by an explanation of the methodology which is used and then concludes with short statements about the remaining chapters in the thesis.