WISESHiFT

WISESHIFT aims to provide evidence-based and theoretically sound rationales, actionable strategies, and multi-level policy architecture to Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs), national federations, European networks, and policymakers. The goal is to enable them to become dynamic agents of inclusive and sustainable transitions within their respective ecosystems.To achieve this, WISESHIFT will develop a scientific conceptualization at the crossroads of social economy studies, sustainable transition studies, and multi-level governance policy analysis. The project will start with a comprehensive analysis of the landscape of WISEs and their implementation of work integration pathways for vulnerable workers across the 27 EU Member States and Serbia. Next, WISESHIFT will conduct an in-depth analysis of 24 WISEs and their contributions to inclusive and sustainable transitions within their respective ecosystems, focusing on three domains: repair, reuse, and recycling; agrifood; and community/home care for the elderly. The third objective of WISESHIFT is to perform a comprehensive cross-cutting analysis using the Multi-Level Perspective to identify the organizational factors specific to WISEs that make them potentially "inclusive and sustainable by design." The fourth objective is to develop a comparative and multi-level framework of analysis to address challenges posed by policies and regulations to the WISEs and, through their lenses, to the social economy.
Overall, the ambition of WISESHIFT – is to contribute to strengthening the tangible role of social economy organisations as catalysts for transformative and systemic change towards more inclusive and sustainable practices within their ecosystems as envisioned by the EU social economy strategy.