Social economy in Bałtów as social innovation

The article discusses problems of joining of social economy and social innovation, illustrated by the example of activities undertaken in the last decade in the rural commune of Bałtów (Świętokrzyskie voivodship). In the theoretical section, I present the context of emergence of social innovations in Europe and some of their definitions. In the empirical section, I depict the development of social entrepreneurship initiatives in Bałtów commune based on the case study conducted in 2013 and analyse them in the context of social innovation.