Types of Social Economy Organisations

Types and Forms of Social Economy

Summary

This module focuses on the multiple Types and Forms of Social Economy (SE) organisations as economic initiatives that become visible when the economy is rethought as something that emerges from everyday action and takes into account the well-being of people and the environment. It reviews all several Types and Forms of SE organisations running through a variety of business models, different modes of exchange (market), the commons (property relations) and several forms of financing. In the context of the module it is investigated whether the organisation of the various economic activities seen in the light of the SE, contribute to the increase of individual and planetary well-being.

Editorial

According to the European Commission (2021), 2.8 million Social Economy (SE) entities in Europe offer concrete and innovative solutions to key challenges that communities are facing. They create and retain quality jobs, contribute to social and labour-market inclusion of disadvantaged groups and create equal opportunities for all. SE organisations do not belong either to the public or the private sector. They can vary greatly in their legal forms, scope and size. They exist across several types and forms of business models and embed diverse conceptions of markets, property and finance into managerial choices and practices.

Regarding business models, the term SE traditionally refers to cooperatives. With over 250,000 enterprises in the EU employing 5.4 million people, cooperatives are not only historic members of the SE, but they are also one of the most significant economic actors in this ecosystem. They are people-centred enterprises jointly owned and democratically controlled by and for their members (according to the ‘one member, one vote’ rule) to achieve common social and economic objectives. Whether consumer, producer, worker or multi-stakeholder cooperatives, different types of cooperatives exist: social cooperatives, platform cooperatives, agricultural cooperatives, cooperative banks, retail cooperatives, pharmaceutical cooperatives etc. Thus, cooperatives are strongly present in every economic sector like healthcare, education, housing, construction, industry etc. Stemming from their values, any activities of cooperatives are naturally based on the principle of social responsibility. While emphasis is placed on satisfying the needs and expectations of the members, cooperatives also take into account the sustainable development of local communities, environmental concerns, and the health and safety of consumers and producers. Over the last two decades, the development and spread of new organisational forms and models have broadened our conception of what the SE means. Among SE organisations, social enterprises, which emerged more recently, distinguish themselves by a more pronounced entrepreneurial approach. Compared to social non-profit ventures, their source of income comes primarily from commercial activities, rather than grants and donations. Social enterprises, which adopt a variety of legal forms depending on the national context, operate by providing goods and services for the market in an entrepreneurial and often innovative fashion, having social and/or environmental objectives as the reason for their commercial activity. Profits are mainly reinvested with a view to achieving their societal objective.

In this perspective, the market is not considered as an exclusively financial exchange between people and enterprises, where price is the sole criterion, determined by the supply and demand for a given product quality. Within the SE, market dynamics are regulated by a set of organisations that create spaces in which people meet each other as equals. Governed by a set of ethical choices, like low environmental impact and human well-being, community-based initiatives of alternative exchange networks and the Fair Trade movement have made their presence felt on a global scale. Based on the principles of solidarity, justice and economic democracy, alternative exchange networks aim to integrate justice and solidarity in economic exchange, including non-monetised exchanges, gifts and reciprocity. Whereas the Fair Trade, standing against child and forced labour and discriminations, tries to ensure opportunities for disadvantaged producers, transparency and accountability, fair payment, good working conditions and environmental protection both locally and globally.

SE organisations are basically characterised by common property and democratic structure of ownership, as their property rights are assigned to the stakeholders. In this framework, diverse property ownership forms coexist and interact. Any form of property that is collectively managed by a community of people according to a set of rules and protocols established by the community itself can potentially constitute a commons. As a paradigm of governance and resource management by a community, commons are not restricted by different forms of property ownership. This, because access to property is common and widespread, its use is negotiated between community members, benefits from its use are shared within the community, its care is performed by community members who also take its responsibility. Collaborative ventures in the field of IT (such as that of the free encyclopedia Wikipedia) have also brought to light the issue of peer production, i.e. the cooperation of self-organised groups and individuals who participate on an equal basis with the aim of achieving a common goal. Particularly in commons-based peer production, both the means and the results are not objects of exclusive property. Instead, they are shared among participants within an institutional structure that allocates its resources equally to all.

While access to capital is vital to the success of any enterprise, the participatory ownership model introduces unique features (principles of cooperation, democratic control by members, financial participation of members) that influence the selection of various forms of financing in SE organisations. Social finance providers such as ethical and cooperative banks, micro finance institutions, credit unions, mutuals insurers, and paritarian institutions, are key investors in sustainable social entrepreneurship. Public-benefit foundations are also traditional SE organisations that can act as funders of, and investors in social enterprises and other SE organisations. They are asset-based and purpose-driven non-profit bodies, which engage in many forms of social investment. Public-benefit foundations focus on areas ranging from the environment, social services, health and education, to science, research, arts and culture. Participating in peer-to-peer lending, as direct investing to help others build their futures, do-it-yourself finance to finding opportunities for groups to raise their own finances, supporting institutions that prioritise building others’ futures – to name but a few – are some non-financial services that constitute an integral part of an adequate ecosystem which financially supports the development of the SE.

Considering all the above, SE is understood as integrating a set of activities with social and economic expression, managed by not-for-profit entities, aimed at satisfying needs not met by the Market and/or the State or even regulating the Market. Within this context, the SE encompasses a range of diverse and alternative entities with multiple business and organisational models, with a common ambition to create a more inclusive and sustainable economic paradigm, sharing the following main common principles and features (SEE, 2022):

·  the primacy of people as well as social and/or environmental purpose over capital,

·  the reinvestment of most of the profits and surpluses to carry out activities in the interest of members/users (“collective interest”) or society at large (“general interest”) and

·  democratic and/ or participatory governance.

Highlighting all this wealth of multiple types and forms of SE organisations and how they run through a variety of business models, different modes of exchange (market), the commons (property relations) and various forms of financing provides an introduction to what Gibson-Graham et al (2013) describe as “diverse economies”.

Index of Resources NEW

Title of resource (clickable)	Type	Description	Language
Archambault, E. (2015). Organizing the Field of the Social Economy. The Social Economy and its Classification. Marie J. Bouchard & Damien Rousselière. The Weight of the Social Economy. An International Perspective, 6, P.I.E. Peter Lang, pp.91-116, 2015, Social Economy&Public economy, ISBN 2030-3408 ISBN978-2-87574-287-2. ffhalshs-00831556v2f European Parliament (2016). Social Economy.	Book Chapter	This book chapter offers an overview of how the historic evolution of classification of the Social Economy organizations shape the  vision of the economic and social reality that constitute the Social Economy.	ENG
Bassi A, Fabbri A. (2017) Under pressure: Evolution of the social economy institutional recognition in the EU. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics. 2020;1–23.	Paper	This paper deals with the institutional policy and attitude of the EU Commission towards Social Economy organizations in the field of welfare policy. It provides an illustration of the key features of the Social Investment policy framework, and an analysis of the regulatory eco-system of the EU towards Social Economy.	ENG
Bastida et al (2017) "Alliance success factors and performance in social economy enterprises", Management Decision, Vol. 55 Issue: 5, doi: 10.1108/MD-12-2016-0881	Paper	Establishing alliances between social economy enterprises (SEEs) is considered to be a solution to the problem of providing enough resources and knowledge to compete in the global market and, at the same time, to maintain identity and ownership. The purpose of this paper is to study the key factors that affect alliances’ development and outcome. In this study, the success factors that have been extensively tested in investor-owned companies are assessed in SEEs, which present important differences in organizational issues and corporate principles and values.	ENG
Bauwens, M., & Pantazis, A. (2018). The ecosystem of commons-based peer production and its transformative dynamics. The Sociological Review, 66(2), 302–319.	Paper	This essay discusses peer-to-peer social dynamics and the relevant technological infrastructures that enable new modes of production. Commons-based peer production is presented as an alternative to the profit-driven peer-to-peer production models of the digital economy. The latter models utilize the peer-to-peer dynamics to harness social creativity, collaboration and information sharing.	ENG
Bretos, I, Bouchard, MJ, Zevi, A. (2020). Institutional and organizational trajectories in social economy enterprises: Resilience, transformation and regeneration. Ann Public Coop Econ. 2020; 91: 351– 357.	Paper	Social economy enterprises (SEEs) are arousing notable interest as promising alternatives where social innovation, business ownership and governance are concerned. In this context, a renewed debate about the internal changes and organizational trajectories experienced by these organizations has emerged in the scholarly literature. This special issue aims to contribute to ongoing debates in this field by advancing our understanding of the external pressures and internal dynamics that can trigger degeneration in SEEs, the conditions and factors that allow SEEs preserving their hallmark values and practices, and the resources and processes of organizational change that SEEs can deploy to overcome degeneration and regenerate.	ENG
Bretos, I., Errasti, A., & Soetens, A. (2021). ‘International Social Economy Organizations’. In: B. Gidron & A. Domaradzka (Eds.), The New Social and Impact Economy: An International Perspective (pp. 245–268). Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing	Book Chapter	This chapter aims to shed light on the Social Economy organization issues of preserving and extending their socially oriented practices and values, and the approaches that they can adopt to maintain a sustainable balance between social and economic performance. The discussions are illustrated with examples of high-profile SEOs that are operating successfully on a global scale while engaging in communitarian purposes, social values, and cooperative practices.	ENG
Morgan, B. (2019) 'Transcending The Corporation: social enterprise, cooperatives, and commons-based governance', in Thomas Clarke, Justin O’Brien, and Charles R. T. O’Kelley (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Corporation, Oxford Handbooks.	Book Chapter	The chapter provides a brief overview of governance experimentation in small-scale food enterprises, taking into consideration innovations in the legal form of social enterprise, and reinvigorated uses of cooperative forms. Since debates around the production and distribution of food increasingly center around the notion of food as a “commons,” this provides a useful illustration of some of the key implications of the chapter’s argument.	ENG
CIRIEC (2017). Recent evolutions of the Social Economy in the European Union. European Economic and Social Committee, European Union.	Report	The general objective of the Report is to study the recent evolution of the social economy (SE) in the European Union (UE) and its 28 member states. It focuses in three areas: firstly, the social economy and the emergent concepts/movements related to the space between states and market/for profit businesses, secondly, the public policies in their large sense built both at the EU and the Member countries in recent years to enhance the social economy sector and thirdly, measuring the weight of the social economy in each EU Member country.	ENG
European Commission (2021). Building an economy that works for people: An action plan for the social economy (PDF)	Policy Document	This action plan provides a European framework until 2030 to further support the development of the social economy. It sets out a series of actions to be put in place in conjunction with the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan and achievement of its employment and poverty reduction targets	ENG
Cooperatives Europe (2022). Position paper on the European Action Plan for the Social Economy.	Position Paper	In this paper Cooperatives Europe share some recommendations on the European Action Plan for the Social Economy, by stressing the important aspects are still missing or remain barely touched upon.	ENG
Corsi, A., Barbera, F., Dansero, E., & Peano, C. (2018). Alternative food networks. McMillan, London.	Book	In recent years, Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) have been a key issue both in the scientific community and in public debates. This is due to their profound implications for rural development, local sustainability, and bio-economics. This edited collection discusses what the main determinants of the participation of operators – both consumers and producers – in AFNs are, what the conditions for their sustainability are, what their social and environmental effects are, and how they are distributed geographically. Further discussions include the effect of AFNs in structuring the food chain and how AFNs can be successfully scaled up.	ENG
European Parliament (2016). Social Economy.	Policy Document	This study assesses the important role the social economy plays in the EU. Priority policies identified to reach its full potential include: 1) digital transformation of social economy, 2) enabling EU cross-sectorial regulatory and financial frameworks, and 3) improving definitions and developing indicators - alternatives to GDP - to focus policies on EU added-value.	ENG
GECES (2017). Working Group 1: “Improving access to funding” Subject Paper.	Subject Paper	The main objective of GECES WG1 was to produce concrete policy recommendations to the European Commission, and Member States, aimed to encourage and enable an eco-system to improve access to funding to social enterprises within Europe. A secondary objective of WG1 was to produce guidelines on social enterprise funding for private and public funders, for social enterprises seeking funding and commissioners (public sector purchasers of services) wanting to support cost-effective funding and risk transfer. The GECES report outlines the main recommendations from WG1, and the Subject Paper provides more detail on how the recommendations can be implemented along with examples of best practice from across Europe.	ENG
Gibson-Graham, J. K., Cameron, J., & Healy, S. (2013). Take back the economy: An ethical guide for transforming our communities. University of Minnesota Press.	Book	Take Back the Economy dismantles the idea that the economy is separate from us and best comprehended by experts, demonstrating that the economy is the outcome of the decisions and efforts we make every day. Full of exercises and inspiring examples from around the world, it shows how people can implement small-scale changes in their own lives to create ethical economies.	ENG
Grassl, W. (2012). Business models of social enterprise: A design approach to hybridity. ACRN Journal of entrepreneurship Perspectives, 1(1), 37-60.	Paper	This paper proposes a design framework for a categorisation of social entrerprises and thus for explaining organisational pluralism while being founded on real distinctions in the social world rather than merely conceptual abstraction.	ENG
Fonteneau and Ignace Pollet (2019). The Contribution of the Social and Solidarity Economy and Social Finance to the Future of Work. International Labour Office, Geneva.	Study	The world of work is nowadays characterized by changes beyond the direct control of workers and entrepreneurs but directly affecting them by modifying their positions and experiences. This study aims to provide insights on how the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) is contributing to the future of work. The conducted research shows how SSE organisations and enterprises respond to current global challenges, thereby contributing to a more inclusive world of work based on social justice, meaningfulness and sustainability.	ENG
ICA (2015). Guidance Notes to the Co-operative Principles. International Co-operative Alliance	Policy Paper	The Statement includes a definition of co-operatives, a listing of the global co-operative movement’s key values, and a reformulation of the co-operative movement’s principles to guide co-operative enterprises in their day-to-day business operations.	ENG
ILO (2022). Decent work and the social and solidarity economy. International Labour Conference, 110th Session, 2022.	Report	This report delineates the contours of the SSE around the world, elaborates on the building blocks of the concept and proposes a definition for discussion. It also presents regional overviews of the SSE. It also discusses the way forward in terms of strengthening the contribution of the SSE to decent work and sustainable development.	ENG
Kostakis, V., Niaros, V., Dafermos, G. and Bauwens, M. (2015) ‘Design global, manufacture local: Exploring the contours of an emerging productive model’, Futures. Elsevier Ltd, 73, pp. 126–135. doi: 10.1016/j.futures.2015.09.001.	Paper	This article argues that recent techno-economic developments around the emergence of commons-based peer production and desktop manufacturing technologies, may signal new alternative paths of social organization. All commons-oriented narratives could converge, thereby supporting the creative communities which are building the world they want within the confines of the political economy they aspire to transcend.	ENG
Kostakis, V., Vragoteris, V. and Lal Acharja, I. (2021). Can peer production democratize technology and society? A critical review of the critiques. Futures (131). 10.1016/j.futures.2021.102760	Paper	This article summarizes and discusses the criticism against the emancipatory potential of peer production and proposes ways in which commons-based peer production could still democratize technology and society.	ENG
Krlev et al (2021). Reconceptualizing the Social Economy. Standford Social Innivation Review.	Online Article	The social economy is increasingly seen as a motor for social change, but how can this shift in perspectives be framed to better understand and harness its potential? The aim of this essay is to focus explicitly on projecting a future vision for the strategies that will help the social economy contirbute to shaping a better economy and making society more resilient.	ENG
Lapoutte, A. (2018). “Multi-stakeholder governance of the commons, a pragmatic approach / Chapter 12”. In: CIRIEC and BANCE, Philippe (dir.). Providing public goods and commons. Towards coproduction and new forms of governance for a revival of public action. Liège: CIRIEC, 2018. (CIRIEC Studies Series; 1), pp. 251-264.	Book Chapter	This chapter proposes a theoretical contribution that underlines the relevancy of a pragmatist approach to understand the governance of the commons through the cooperation between public economy and Social Economy for the development of commons and public goods.	ENG
McGreevy, S. R., Rupprecht, C. D., Niles, D., Wiek, A., Carolan, M., Kallis, G., ... & Tachikawa, M. (2022). Sustainable agrifood systems for a post-growth world. Nature sustainability, 5(12), 1011-1017.	Paper	Sustainable agrifood systems are critical to averting climate-driven social and ecological disasters, overcoming the growth paradigm and redefining the interactions of humanity and nature in the twenty-first century. This Perspective describes an agenda and examples for comprehensive agrifood system redesign according to principles of sufficiency, regeneration, distribution, commons and care.	ENG
Milotay (2020). What future for the social economy? European Parliamentary Research Service.	Briefing	This article aims not only to to raise the visibility and importance of the social economy but also to introduce tools that can equip it to play its driving role in the current transformations. Access to finance and markets, as long as upcoming technologies and business models are discussed.	ENG
Mori, P.A. (2014). Community And Cooperation: The Evolution Of Cooperatives Towards New Models Of Citizens' Democratic Participation In Public Services Provision. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 85: 327-352.	Paper	The community cooperatives that are spreading today in many parts of the world are the arrival point of an evolutionary process that has seen the progressive shift of cooperatives’ focus from specific social and professional groups to society as a whole. This paper provides an overview of the evolution of cooperatives' classification in various types and forms.	ENG
OECD (2020). Regional Strategies for the Social Economy. Examples from France, Spain, Sweden and Poland. OECD Publishing.	Policy Paper	This paper provides a comparative perspective of regional strategies for the social economy based on the level of recognition of the social economy itself, multi-level governance arrangements, the regional strategic priority given to the social economy and financial resources available for regional strategies. It gives examples of strategies for the social economy in selected regions to document the diversity of practice. It outlines conclusions and policy orientations to help reinforce the positive impact of regional strategies for the social economy on regional development.	ENG
Rey-Martí A, Mohedano-Suanes A, Simón-Moya V. (2019) Crowdfunding and Social Entrepreneurship: Spotlight on Intermediaries. Sustainability, 11(4):1175.	Paper	This study contributes to the literature by describing how crowdfunding platforms that host social entrepreneurship projects build and preserve legitimacy. It also shows that the legitimacy that funders ascribe to a project’s social and/or environmental aims is also a source of legitimacy for the intermediaries that promote social entrepreneurship projects.	ENG
de Peuter, G. and Dyer-Withford, N. (2010) ‘Commons and co-operatives’, Affinities, 1(1), pp. 30–56. doi: 10.1177/0160449X09337903.	Paper	In the last decade, the commons has become a prevalent theme in discussions about collective but decentralized control over resources. This paper is a preliminary exploration of the potential linkages between commons and cooperatives through a discussion of the worker cooperative as one example of a labour commons. It is suggested that the radical potential of worker cooperatives might be extended, theoretically and practically, by elaborating connections with other commons struggles in a process we term the circulation of the common.	ENG
Rizzi  Francesco,  Pellegrini  Chiara,  Battaglia  Massimo  (2018)  “The  structuring  of  social  finance: Emerging  approaches  for  supporting environmentally  and  socially impactful projects”, Journal  of  Cleaner Production, Vol. 170, pp. 805-817.	Paper	Although a new landscape of social finance institutions (SFIs) is evolving rapidly in Europe, the academic literature on the structures of legitimation that characterize the development of social finance has been limited. This paper addresses this gap by conceptualizing social finance (SF) as a pre-paradigmatic field where leading SF institutions have spontaneously adopted different investment rationalities and logics to achieve positive social impact through financing and banking activities and by discussing dominant institutionalization patterns, empirically exploring the institutionalization of SF at the organizational, inter-organizational and institutional levels.	ENG
Sahan, E. (2021). How to build a social economy: Lessons from the Fair Trade movement	Online Article	There are many ways local leaders are innovating to reshape their economies. There are many levers of change. But the key is to be bold enough to build the economy that your region needs. In this article some general lessons from the Fair Trade movement are referred. Leadership, partnership and tailoring efforts based on local opportunities is often to key to success.	ENG
Social Economy Europe (2022). Towards a Council Recommendation on developing social economy framework conditions.	Report	This report aims to stress that the different social economy forms bring an added value to our societies. The existence of different social economy forms varies greatly from one EU Member State to another, and even between regions and it is the result of different histories and traditions, but also of societal, economic, and political innovations.	ENG
Vincent, O., & Feola, G. (2020). A framework for recognizing diversity beyond capitalism in agri-food systems. Journal of Rural Studies, 80, 302-313.	Report	The application of the framework to cases of community supported agriculture (CSA) shows the coexistence of capitalist, alternative-capitalist or non-capitalist elements in CSA initiatives. Distinct CSA initiatives show different configurations of the framework's elements. In some cases, configurations changed over time as a result of tensions between actors, or between the CSA and its context. The uncovering of these dynamics proves that the framework can be a valuable tool for recognizing diversity beyond capitalism in a given food initiative.	ENG
Williams (2017). Urban commons are more-than-property. Geographical forum 28(1).	Paper	This paper offers a grounded understanding of the role of property, and other practices, in maintaining an urban commons over time. An understanding of urban commons as more-than-property is needed to recognise how present but elusive urban commons are.	ENG
World Economic Forum and Schwab Foundation (2022). Unlocking the Social Economy Towards an inclusive and resilient society. Insight Report.	Report	This report describes the shifts needed to unlock the potential of the social economy.	ENG
Developing the Social Economy in Karditsa: A Social Ecosystem	Documentary	Charting the growth and gradual obsolescence of the cooperative movement, but also the recent evolution of an ecosystem of cooperatives and social enterprises today. Based on the words of the protagonists of social economy ventures, members of the wider academic community and supporting structures, it presents actions for the organization of innovative relations of production and distribution centered on society.	GR
A history of microfinance | Muhammad Yunus | TEDxVienna	TED	Prof. Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist and founder of the Grameen Bank, an institution that provides microcredit to help its clients establish creditworthiness and financial self-sufficiency.	ENG
TOGETHER - How cooperatives show resilience to the crisis -The new documentary by CECOP - CICOPA Europe	Documentary	The documentary shows the resilience of the cooperatives and participative enterprises in industry and services to the crisis. The film bring forward emblematic examples of restructuring measures by cooperatives in four European countries: the Foundry de l’Aisne, an enterprise in crisis transformed into a cooperative in France, the MONDRAGON Corporation, the 7th largest industrial group in Spain, Muszynianka, a producer of mineral water in Poland and Consorzio SIS, a social cooperative consortium in Italy.	ENG
What future for the social economy?	Podcast	In the first two decades of the 21st century, with new risks and opportunities arising owing to the twin digital and green transformations there is an emerging debate, rethinking economic growth theories with more focus on inclusion and combatting inequality, and exploring the relevance of traditional welfare state models. This debate has intensified in the wake of the 2008 crisis, and now also as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and crisis. The social economy can play a central role in this context.	ENG
SLX-Research Learning & Development Collection Episode 5: Social Finance | Sustainable Finance | SDGPlus	Video	Social Finance and Social Economy Organisations have been around for a long-time. Together they have been able to improve education, better healthcare, reduce inequality, alleviate poverty, and much more! However, similar to green finance, social finance has struggled with many challenges. All of which that has prevented it from becoming mainstream. Even with these challenges, social finance has managed to grow and remain relevant. Along with new emerging social financial tools, will we see social finance come to the forefront?	ENG
What is Fairtrade...	Video	Fairtrade Belgium is the Belgian member of Fairtrade International.  Located in Brussels, our 14 membered team  supports Belgian companies to source and to market Fairtrade products. We also engage as many citizens and  organizations as possible to make a deliberate choice for Fairtrade.	ENG
Co-operative Businesses I A Level and IB Economics	Video	In this short topic video we look at the growing number of businesses and organisations that operate as member-owned and run co-operatives. Co-ops are owned and run by their members, who can be customers, employees or groups of businesses. Co-operative businesses are run on principles of shared ownership, shared voice & shared profits.	ENG
The Mutuals Movement	Video	Australian cooperative economist Dr. Race Mathews breaks down the history and legacy of mutuals and their relationship to unions and the social economy.	ENG
Mondragon Cooperative Corporation 1/2	Video	This video show the successful example of The Mondragon Corporation based in the Basque region of Spain. It follows the route from its foundation in 1956 until its establishment as the enth-largest Spanish company in terms of asset turnover and the leading business group in the Basque Country.	ENG
Mondragon Cooperative Corporation 2/2	Video	This video show the successful example of The Mondragon Corporation based in the Basque region of Spain. It follows the route from its foundation in 1956 until its establishment as the enth-largest Spanish company in terms of asset turnover and the leading business group in the Basque Country.	ENG
How Does the Commons Work?	Video	How can we use "commoning" as a process to transform the social paradigm of our current system? In his paper for our "New Systems: Possibilities and Proposals" series exploring viable political-economic alternatives to the present order, economist David Bollier suggests we rethink the traditional "tragedy of the commons" argument, moving instead toward new and innovative ways to equitably manage shared resources.	ENG
What is the Social Economy?	Video	What is the social economy about? This short video explains the main features of this alternative way of doing business.	ENG