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Prapin Nuchpiam, National Institute of Development Administration, ThailandAbstract
Civil society organisations (CSOs) comprise various types of organisations, particularly traditional non-profits such as foundations, NGOs, associations and charities. However, these organisations are not financially healthy since they heavily rely on grants and donations. This results in traditional CSOs adopting some business methods to help generate income, as well as traditional for-profit enterprises pursuing social mission. These hybrid CSOs are generally understood as “entrepreneurial non-profits” and “social purpose for-profits”. Social enterprise and community enterprise are examples of the new types of organisations in the civil society sector. Thailand adopts two types of legislation to regulate as well as incentivise CSOs in the country, which are legal forms for foundation and association; and standalone laws for social enterprise and community enterprise. This paper aims to analyse these standalone laws, namely the Community Enterprise Promotion Act B.E. 2548 (2005) and the Social Enterprise Promotion Act B.E. 2562 (2019), highlighting their differences as well as similarities, and raising the question whether they help promote the civil society sector or make its promotion and regulation more complicated. The results showed that Thai CSOs were not sure whether they should define their venture as a social enterprise or community enterprise. Some of them never heard of a social enterprise but they were happy to register as one as long as they could get some government funding. The two Acts are thus explored in order to compare and contrast their legal definitions, incentives and governance. It is hoped that the answers will help shed some light on what they are and whether they truly benefit those involved in the civil society sector, particularly social and community entrepreneurs and the regulators in making future decisions.
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Conference: ECAH2025Stream: Other Humanities
This paper is part of the ECAH2025 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Nuchpiam P. (2025) Legal Aspects of Hybrid Civil Society Organisations: The Study of Social Enterprise and Community Enterprise ISSN: 2188-1111 – The European Conference on Arts & Humanities 2025: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 211-219) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2188-1111.2025.19
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2188-1111.2025.19
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