The Social Innovation of Social Cooperatives Operating on Confiscated Mafia Properties: Support Factors and Critical Issues

In recent years, the theme of Social Innovation (SI) has gained significant importance both in academic studies and in policy. In the many definitions of SI proposed by scholars the aspect of change seems to be central. Making social innovation means to find and to provide new solutions to the social needs of individuals and communities; to develop and to introduce changes in the relationships between individuals and institutions; and again, to redefine the priorities of the economic and social development. In this paper we focus on a particular form of SI realized by social cooperatives operating in Italy on assets confiscated from the mafia. Thanks to a law of popular initiative these goods can be allotted to social cooperatives to carry on entrepreneurial activities, involving also disadvantaged people at the risk of social exclusion. In this way it is possible to generate employment and to increase social, cultural and economic development of the affected local communities. The social use makes such goods productive and allows a redemption from the mafia. The very existence of these cooperatives has an important symbolic value affirming the presence of the State and enhancing the credibility of the Institutions. The aim of this paper is to identify the factors that support this kind of entrepreneurship generating SI and difficulties to overcome for its diffusion in the country. To this end, the SI literature and the Italian set of rules concerning confiscated assets will be analyzed. The analysis of institutional documents of associations and institutes involved in the creation process of the social cooperatives, integrated by interviews to key actors, will complete the theorical phase. Then, a case of entrepreneurship in the Sicilian country will be presented with a qualitative approach adopting the representative single case method. The study shows the importance of certain factors supporting the development of this kind of entrepreneurship, namely: a network of actors involved in the creation of social cooperatives; a synergic collaboration among the different actors around a common purpose; an extraordinary commitment and the cooperation between institutions and anti-mafia associations. The critical issues that limit its diffusion in the country are represented by the following aspects: the assignment times of confiscated assets (still too long); the lack of financial resources to ensure a timely and effective use of the assets; the difficulties of access to credit for cooperatives.