Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the potential fruitfulness of the theory of Alasdair MacIntyre for understanding how social enterprises may facilitate well-being, using empirical evidence from doctoral research to illustrate this. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on findings from research conducted at a mental health training and employment organisation which used gardening as rehabilitative tool. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews with staff, volunteers and service users were used to generate the data, a MacIntyrean lens used to analyse the data, and some suggestions are made as to why social enterprises may be particularly suited to such an approach. Findings Practitioners encouraged the seeking of “internal goods” or “goods of excellence” within practices, as it was this which was understood to facilitate well-being. Service users shared in this view, perceiving their time on the case site primarily as “work” and choosing to engage with the service out of a desire to meaningfully contribute to the community project. Research limitations/implications This research is conducted on a small scale and therefore lacks generalisability. The lack of comparison with other organisational forms using the same practice is also a limitation. Originality/value This theory offers an alternative lens for considering how social enterprises might contribute to well-being. The data presented here also complement the growing body of research literature on Work Integration Social Enterprises, considering some of the wider well-being benefits beyond work integration, which thus far has received limited empirical attention.

中文翻译：

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利用MacIntyrean方法了解社会企业如何为幸福做出贡献

目的本文的目的是使用博士研究的经验证据来说明阿拉斯达·麦金太尔（Alasdair MacIntyre）理论在理解社会企业如何促进幸福方面的潜在成果。设计/方法/方法本文基于在心理健康培训和就业组织中进行的研究结果，这些研究使用园艺作为康复工具。使用参与者观察，与员工，志愿者和服务使用者的半结构化访谈来生成数据，使用MacIntyrean透镜来分析数据，并对社会企业为何特别适合这种方法提出了一些建议。调查结果从业者鼓励在实践中寻求“内部商品”或“卓越商品”，因为正是这被认为有助于幸福。服务用户以这种观点进行共享，主要是将他们在案例站点上的时间视为“工作”，并出于对有意义地为社区项目做出贡献的愿望而选择与服务互动。研究的局限性/含义该研究规模较小，因此缺乏普遍性。缺乏与使用相同做法的其他组织形式的比较也是一个局限。原创性/价值该理论为考虑社会企业如何为幸福做出贡献提供了另一种视角。考虑到工作整合之外的一些更广泛的福利，此处提供的数据还补充了有关工作整合社会企业的研究文献，这是不断增长的结果，