Unseen Heroes: How Social Enterprises Facilitate Legitimation of Marginalized Groups

Breaking the cycle of marginalization that affects many people is one of today’s biggest societal challenges, and social enterprises can be a crucial support actor in achieving inclusion. This ethnographically informed qualitative study of a waste management social enterprise in Nepal is motivated by the question, “How do social enterprises facilitate legitimation for marginalized groups in societies?” Based on rich qualitative data, we demonstrate how a Nepali-based social enterprise has contributed to the legitimation process for informal waste workers by employing the 3R strategies of reconditioning, reframing, and representing. Our findings show the importance of capacity-building, rhetoric, and collective action in the legitimation process for marginalized groups, and how these address the underlying attributes of marginalization. We consider conditional legitimacy as a preliminary outcome of the process, which deserves stronger attention in legitimacy theory. The insights gained hold global relevance, offering implications for practitioners to improve the circumstances of marginalized groups worldwide.