Analysis of UK academic contributions which rely on North American nonprofit models and an interpretation of market-oriented Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs) from mainland Europe. Through their exclusion of significant French, mainland European and Canadian literatures on a wider social economy, UK discourses on social enterprise and third sector development have been dominated by the market. UK contributions rarely mention earlier social and solidarity economy approaches to deindustrialisation, job losses and the development of third sector policy elsewhere, including French Regulationist and social solidarity approaches from organisations like CIRIEC from the 1970s onwards. Since these approaches and interpretations were contemporaneous with the growth of UK community indigenous structures, with appropriate academic support and interpretation, these might have formed the basis of a UK social economy. Detailed reviews of literatures and discourses are provided, showing that most UK literatures feature contributions from New Labour onwards and neglect appropriate antecedents. A detailed timeline of US, mainland Europe and UK developments is provided.