Abstract
Social economy represents a contribution to the solution of some topics that the developed countries face at the beginning of the 21st century. Among them, there are delivery of social services for dependent persons, integration of socially excluded groups at labour market, democratisation of community economic activities and the respect to environment, alternatives to the dominating for-profit practices and ideas of majority of economic subjects.
Development of social economy has emerged of the premises that the state cannot fully satisfy needs of population, however, the purely commercial concepts do not comply with the demand of modern democratic society for the accessibility of services and the implementation of public interest. The development of social economy in the EU countries has been undergoing since the 90's of the 20th century, the Czech Republic has systematically introduced the concept over last five years.
The paper discusses the current aspects of social economy and summarizes major contribution of social economy to be considered for application in social work and related spheres.