Elementi per l’analisi di un altro modo di intendere e agire l’economico - Social enterprise and health care in contemporary Great Britain: a new way forward? The essay focuses on the relationship between social enterprises and the health care service in contemporary Great Britain. After highlighting the characteristics of health care and the role of the third sector, also by means of past experiences, the authors underline the specificities of the two models which currently characterize the relationship between organizations of the third sector and the state: the one which presents the third sector as a relationship between centre (state) - periphery (third sector), a relationship of substantial dependency, and the one which underlines relationships of cooperation and social enterprises as a radical alternative to the relationship of dependence between the local state and the third sector.