Research at EMES

EMES members look for joint themes and projects that bring different disciplines from the human sciences together: not only sociologists, economists and political scientists, but colleagues from historical sciences or cultural studies as well.

Specifically, the EMES Network studies socio-economic entities that, while increasingly important in Europe and elsewhere, are still poorly understood. The terms designating these entities include, amongst others: 

• The third sector, 
• The social economy,
• The solidarity-based economy ("économie solidaire"),
• The non-profit sector, and
• Social enterprises.

This research is mostly focused on Europe - a space with own traditions, peculiar political institutions (like the EU) and therefore an agenda for third sector research, that differs to some degrees from other regions in the world; acknowledging these peculiarities, makes inter-regional cooperation easier.

However, through international partnerships with the ISTR and RILESS as well as with active participation in the international scene, EMES is involved in the evolution of theory and research in the different geographic areas.

EMES benefits from the accumulated experience, expertise and reputation of all its members who are among the leading research centres and individual researchers in the field of the Third Sector and social enterprises.
Since its inception in 1996, EMES has completed six major research projects. Click here for the list of the EMES projects.

An additional means of disseminating research results are conferences and workshops. Thus far, EMES has organised a major international research conference on social enterprise (Trento, Italy)and two major international conferences in partnership with the ISTR (Paris and Barcelone). EMES also participated in the 2nd Conference on Social Economy in the Central and Eastern European Countries (Krakow, Poland).

In addition, a large number of events and initiatives are carried out by EMES' members in relation with major research projects. Some of these events take place on a yearly basis while others do not have a specific occurrence pattern.
To go to the list of passed and upcoming conferences, click here.