The Social Enterprise - Instrument of Super-exploitation or of Social Change?

Capitalism has adapted to vast technological, cultural and societal changes far more than anticipated by Marx, Smith, Keynes or Hayek. It has emerged from each succeeding crisis changed but intact, embracing ideological and policy shifts previously condemned, to guarantee its continuation on one sole sacred foundation - the pursuit of profit - bringing us to the current neoliberal epoch - the era of super-exploitation. Human beings themselves have become commodities to be bought and sold. In this context, an alleged “nexus” between profit and public good has been identified to mask profiteering at the expense of the sick, the poor and the vulnerable. On the other hand, the “social enterprise” concept could instead become a key element in the building of effective opposition to capital, facilitating the challenge to bourgeois hegemony by providing concrete evidence of the realistic social alternative to exploitation.