Unconditional Reciprocity and the Case of Italian Social Cooperatives. (June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Poledrini, Simone
• Is Part Of: Nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly. Volume 44:Number 3(2015)
• Page Start: 457
• Page End: 473
• Publication Date: 2015-06
• Subjects: nonprofit sector -- social cooperative -- social enterprise -- theory of reciprocity; Nonprofit organizations -- Periodicals; Voluntarism -- Periodicals; Charity organization -- Periodicals; 361.763
• DOI: 10.1177/0899764013518844
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0899-7640

Abstract

Although scholars of the nonprofit sector have looked at the theoretical implications of social enterprises (SEs), more details and clarification are desirable. In particular, most previous theoretical work refers to the nonprofit sector generically and fails to account for the particularities of organizations within a more general definition of SE. This article surveys previous theories and proposes a framework based on the theory of reciprocity and the concept of unconditional reciprocity to interpret a particular kind of SE: the Italian social cooperative.