Dealing with jokers in the pack: Social enterprise and the State in Scotland, 1965–1999

This paper analyses the evolution of social enterprise in Scotland between 1965 and 1999. Using historical institutionalism and strategic action fields, we demonstrate the role of the State in institutionalising social entrepreneurship as an organisational field at the regional and national levels. This shows how social enterprise emerged as a co-created endeavour between grassroots initiatives and State support. In doing so, we demonstrate how the evolving ideology of the State facilitated social enterprise to address the economic and social needs of peripheral and deindustrialised regions. We adopt a narrative analysis to show how these historical foundations have shaped the contemporary organisational field.