Theory

Over the last twenty years, a profound change has taken place in the relationship between citizens and their governments. In the western democracies, the gradual transformation of social care into a commercial commodity has fundamentally altered the role of government as the primary provider of social care and public welfare. This change in the relations between the state and the citizenry has been marked by starkly different perspectives, deep conflict, and the radical realignment of social and state institutions.

This is the draft conference paper submitted by the same author as 037 for the 2013 UNRISD conference on the potential and limits of the Social and Solidarity Economy

A slide show presented at a 2013 UNRISD conference on the social and solidarity economy. The author presents the broad principles and concepts associated with the SSE (social/solidarity economy) as a response to five challenges: the green challenge, the inclusion challenge, the wellbeing challenge, the moral challenge, and the governance challenge

This report from UNESCO describes the underpinnings and prevalence of the solidarity economy, as well as the potential for its use as a tool of international development, poverty alleviation, and equitable sustainable development

The co-operative movement has always had uneasy relationship with Marxist philosophy and tradition that concentrated on state ownership. Yet co-operatives are socially owned and operated organizations that operate, theoretically at least, on a non-profit basis, driven by member needs and not capital. For instance, worker co-operatives would not accumulate the “surplus labour” in Marx’s labour theory of value, leaving them immune to accusations of exploitation and worker alienation.