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AI Summary:
Source: "The dominant narrative in the 20th century was centered on the complementarity and opposition between market and state. To deal with social and solidarity economy (SSE) origins and histories is to recover a forgotten memory. To go in this direction, it is possible to identify three periods in different continents. The first period was constituted by an associationalism based on democratic solidarity initiated by various groups (indigenous self-organizations in South America, women and African-American in North America, pioneering workers in Europe). It was multidimensional, imbricating political, social and economic questions. The second period saw the recognition of different legal statuses: those of the cooperative, the mutual society and the non-profit organization. Since the end of the 19th century, they have been the components of a social economy, defined as a set of non-capitalist organizations operating within an institutional framework based on the separation between the market economy and the welfare state, particularly during the post-World War II economic expansion (1945 - 1975). The third period links the different crises of the late 20th century with the emergence of the solidarity economy during the same period, which can also be considered as a resurgence of the associationalist movement. The origins and histories allow us to consider the significance of SSE in the 21st century and to address the conditions to concretize its transformative potential.”
Source: “The solidarity economy isn’t a new idea — it originated with Spanish anarchist writer Felipe Alaiz around 1937 as part of a campaign for solidarity between isolated workers, and it earned popularity in Latin American countries in the following decades.”
Source: “Solidarity economy (SE) as a movement and framework is relatively new to the United States but has deep roots in Latin America and Europe. There are various incarnations and instantiations of SE across time and space with different sets of conceptual understandings and political objectives; solidarity economy describes formal and informal political projects, registers reform or revolution, refers to movements and organizations that describe themselves in terms of solidarity economy and those that do not, and can include local, regional, and global projects (Akuno 2017; Allard, Davidson, and Matthaei 2008; Amin 2019; Healy et al. 2018; Kawano 2018; Laville 2010; Loh and Shear 2015; Loh and Jimenez 2017; Matthaei 2018; Miller 2006; Safri 2015; Satgar 2014; Utting 2015). Common to all efforts is a politics that engages with economic difference in order to foment ethical and just economies that put ‘people and planet, over profit’ This means supporting, advancing, and connecting institutions and relations (like cooperatives, including WSDEs, but also community land trusts, alternative currencies, time banks, etc.) that embody noncapitalist rationalities and values, privilege cooperative rather than competitive behaviors, are democratic rather than hierarchical, seek to bring together rather than individualize, and reveal rather than conceal sociality and interdependence.”
Source: “The Solidarity Economy seeks to transform the dominant capitalist system, as well as other authoritarian, state-dominated systems, into one that puts people and the planet at its core. The solidarity economy is an evolving framework as well as a global movement comprised of practitioners, activists, scholars, and proponents. The framework of solidarity economy is a relatively recent construct, though its component parts are both old and new. The term arose independently in the late 1980s in Latin America and Europe through academics such as Luis Razeto (1998) in Chile and Jean Louis Laville (2007) in France. The articulation of the solidarity economy was, in many ways, theory in pursuit of practice, rather than practice in conformity to a model. Scholars drew on their research and experiences to theorize and systematize a wide array of existing practices that form the foundation of ‘another world,’ or more accurately, in the words of the Zapatista, ‘a world in which many worlds fit’… The principles of the solidarity economy vary in their articulation from place to place but share a common ethos of prioritizing the welfare of people and planet over profits and blind growth. The U.S. Solidarity Economy Network uses these five principles: (1) solidarity, cooperation, mutualism; (2) equity in all dimensions (e.g., race, ethnicity, nationality, class, and gender, etc.); (3) participatory democracy; (4) sustainability; and, (5) pluralism. It is important to take these principles together. Individually, they are insufficient to undergird a just and sustainable system… there is already a rich foundation of practice to build upon; however, the solidarity economy and its component parts remain, for the most part, invisible. Part of the explanation lies in the fact that the various practices— worker cooperatives, credit unions, social currencies, and community land trusts, etc.—operate in their own silos. They are seen and indeed tend to develop in an atomized fashion rather than as connected pieces of a whole system… RIPESS was formed in 1997 at a meeting on the globalization of solidarity in Lima, Peru… Affiliated projects include the ongoing development of a Global Vision of Social Solidarity Economy, Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) Global Mapping, web portals such as RELIESS (policy) and Socioeco (all things solidarity economy), a LinkedIn SSE discussion group, and working groups on education, communication, and networking. International organizations are starting to integrate SSE into their agendas. SSE has long been part of World Social Forums, including the 2013 World Social Forum of Solidarity Economy held in Brazil. The International Labour Organization (ILO) organizes an annual Social Solidarity Economy Academy; in 2013, the UN Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) held a conference in Geneva on the social solidarity economy, and subsequently the UN Inter-agency Taskforce on the Social Solidarity Economy was established which has helped to support SSE representation in regional consultations on the UN’s post-2015 Sustainable Development agenda in Asia, Latin America, Europe, and North America… It is worth noting that some of these government initiatives seek to support the social economy, not necessarily the solidarity economy. It is worth a brief digression on the difference between these two concepts. The European Union’s Charter Principles of the Social Economy identifies four families of social economy organization: cooperatives, mutuals, associations, and foundations, which adhere to principles of democratic control by membership, solidarity, primacy of social and member interests over capital, and sustainability. The social economy aligns with solidarity economy principles and is embraced as an important component. The social economy, however, does not necessarily seek systemic transformation, whereas the solidarity economy does. The social economy accommodates a range of positions regarding the capitalist system, from regarding itself as a legitimate pillar of capitalism with a particular strength in addressing social and economic inequalities, to being in full support of a transformative, post-capitalist agenda. Thus, when governments pass social economy laws, they are supporting a particular sector of the solidarity economy but not necessarily the goal of systemic transformation. One final noteworthy distinction is that the social economy is far narrower than the solidarity economy, which, for example, includes the state (assuming fundamental change) and non-monetized transactions such as care and volunteer labor. Diagram 2 depicts the social economy as a major part of the third system of self-help, reciprocity, and social purpose. Diagram 3 illustrates the solidarity economy as occupying space, albeit not a dominant one, across all three sectors: public, private and the third sector.”
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Images source: “Solidarity Economy: Building an Economy for People & Planet” by Emily Kawano
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Source: “A shared understanding of the social and solidarity economy (SSE) is emerging from the development of legislation and statistical frameworks on the SSE. Since the turn of the century, legislation on the SSE has been adopted in more than 20 countries. Based on a review of the legal acts, this brief presents and synthesizes the values, principles, organizational forms and policy measures that are subsumed under the SSE.”
Source: "What exactly is the social and solidarity economy (SSE)? Like many terms that enter the development lexicon, its meaning is contested. Referring to the actors, institutions, principles and practices involved, this entry identifies the key features of SSE. It contrasts different perspectives on the nature and potential of SSE, highlighting both their commonalities and substantive differences. In doing so, the entry examines how SSE is positioned in the broader economy – vis-à-vis the state or public sector, the private for-profit sector and the popular or informal economy, as well as in relation to the possibilities for systemic change. It also questions whether the meaning of SSE is being diluted as the term is mainstreamed. To guard against this possibility, the entry suggests the need for an encompassing definition that acknowledges both its attributes associated with social and environmental purpose, and its democratic and transformative potential.”
Source: “This paper is part of an ongoing process of discussion and debate about the concepts, definitions and framework of the social solidarity economy (SSE). RIPESS (Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of SSE) has engaged in this process from its first Global Forum on SSE in 1997 through to the present. The vision of SSE has been steadfast, but underlying concepts, definitions and frameworks have, and continue to evolve. In 2012, the RIPESS Board agreed to make the RIPESS Global Vision one of the main themes of the 5th Meeting of the SSE which was held in Manila in October 2013. We organized a global consultation process in which an earlier draft of this paper was widely circulated and each continent took on the responsibility of moving the dialogue through a mixture of live meetings, conference calls and electronic communication. There was also an electronic forum on the RIPESS website that was open for comments from anyone throughout the world. At the Manila Meeting there were around 100 people who participated in a lively and productive World Café exercise to further explore, discuss and share their views on the meaning of the SSE. This paper builds on the whole of this process, as well as the RIPESS Charter that was adopted in 2008 which lays out our values, mission and vision. Due to its strong roots in grassroots practice throughout the world, it is unavoidable that there are differences due to culture, history, actors, and language. Sometimes, what appears at first to be a difference melts away with further discussion. Thus, to the greatest extent possible, we seek to find convergences, but also honor and respect the differences that remain.”
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Image source: “Solidarity economy (SE) is a post-capitalist framework that emerged in Latin America and Europe in the 1990s. It rejects state-dominated authoritarian forms of socialism, instead affirming a core commitment to participatory democracy. Furthermore, it is explicitly feminist, anti-racist, and ecological, and advocates for economic transformation that transcends all of forms of oppression, not just class. SE is a big tent, embracing many coexisting visions—far too numerous to name here—of democratic post-capitalist economic systems. The SE framework for system change focuses on the process of building economic practices and institutions based on the values of equity in all dimensions (race, class, gender, sexuality, and so on), cooperation and solidarity, economic and political democracy, sustainability, and pluralism. We do not need to ‘wait for the revolution’ because SE practices already exist all around us today. Our task is to make these practices visible, and to grow and connect them. SE institutions include cooperatives (worker-owned, consumer, producer), public banks, community land trusts, alternative currencies, and time banks. In contrast to the narrow self-interest, competition, and struggle to dominate others that are at the heart of racist, patriarchal capitalism, the solidarity economy is centered on a culture of solidarity, mutuality, caring, and cooperation, including social responsibility, economic human rights, and the rights of Mother Earth.”
Image source: Entities included in the social economy.
Image source: "The Encyclopedia of the Social and Solidarity Economy is a comprehensive reference text that explores how the social and solidarity economy (SSE) plays a significant role in creating and developing economic activities in alternative ways. In contrast to processes involving commodification, commercialisation, bureaucratisation and corporatisation, SSE reasserts the place of ethics, social well-being and democratic decision-making in economic activities and governance. Identifying and analysing a myriad of issues and topics associated with the SSE, the Encyclopedia broadens the knowledge base of diverse actors of SSE, including practitioners, activists and policymakers.”
Images source: System Change: A Basic Primer to the Solidarity Economy
Source: Another short primer on the solidarity economy.
Source: Solidarity economy book list
Source: “A selection of texts chosen for study within the Chicago DSA Solidarity Economy Working Group which offer insight into a basic understanding of the foundations of the solidarity economy framework and movement, practical guidance for societal changes which can be made towards cultivating the solidarity economy, and visions for how society may look on the other side of these changes.”
Source: “As society contends with the ongoing economic, environmental and political crises perpetuated by racist patriarchal ecologically-destructive capitalism, there is a need to look beyond forms of inequality to the opportunity of solidarity. While histories of mutuality and reciprocity have long been present in economies around the world, it is in the last thirty years that global movements have begun to coalesce under the framework of the solidarity economy. This framework asserts a path forward towards a just and sustainable post-capitalist future, based in cooperation and care. We begin by exploring how the solidarity economy framework and movement have been making already-existing alternatives to capitalism visible. Then we consider the values, practices and institutions that have come to define the solidarity economy, and the vital role social movements have played in creating a politics and culture of solidarity. We then look at how the solidarity economy movement is growing and solidifying the solidarity economy through education, incubation, and establishing networks at multiple scales. The article concludes with a consideration of present challenges, including capitalist competition, dealing with competing frameworks, inclusion/exclusion, and overcoming conflict.”