Social and solidarity economy, and self-management

Abstract

Social and solidarity-oriented and self-governed processes of organizing economic life haveexisted since humans have collaborated to survive. However, the conscious demand and conceptual realization of the social aspects of the economy only arose in Western thought withthe emergence of a primarily market-based exploitative economy and the enclosed commons,forcing working people into capitalism’s system of production and exchange (McMurtry,2010; Polanyi, 2001 [1944]).This chapter first reviews the most cited definitions of what is increasingly termed the socialand solidarity economy (SSE), related concepts, and their contextual and theoretical perspectives.Secondly, we present four dimensions of the SSE as entry points for discussing andsummarizing its most salient components, taking up both concepts and practices developedover time and across geographies. Throughout, we also remain sensitive to trans-cultural andcross-linguistic practices and ways-of-knowing in regard to non-Western social and solidaryeconomics, which remain mostly inaccessible to mainstream and mostly Western SSE debates.Finally, we offer summative thoughts on the continued promises and potential of the SSE andwhy the work of conceptualizing and visibilizing it is important in the search for other ways of“doing economy” (Gibson-Graham and Dombroski, 2020, p. 1).