EN
The primary objective of this paper is to present the basic requirements for establishing a social cooperatives in Poland and an indication of the diversity of the object of their activity. The main thesis of this article is the assertion that the essential premises of the creation and operation of social cooperatives in Poland are the needs to reduce social exclusion. This thesis will be verified ex post by examining the main objects of social cooperatives in Poland. The paper consists of three parts. The first one contains theoretical considerations on the concept of social cooperative and take evidence and the implementation of activities. They have been integrated into the wider social and economic mainstream of its designates and issues of social capital formation. The second part of the study points to the abundance and spatial distribution of social cooperatives in Poland in the years 2005–2011. The third part of this work concerns the analysis of the subject of social cooperatives in the surveyed enterprises and social economy is a direct way related to the empirical verification of the research hypothesis.