Cooperative and Solidarity Economy

From Beyond Social

What are the limitations of existing coop models? how could they be overcome? Peer to Peer Manifesto. Platform Cooperativism. See Commons folder for more!


What is cooperative and solidarity economy?

Solidarity economy is a form of production, consumption and distribution of resources that focuses on people, and not on the accumulation of capital. Today’s economy doesn’t really care about people. Inequalities and division are more visible. As a result, many people can’t have access to housing, education or health services. Social and solidarity economy puts people before profits. It invests in people’s creativity and capacities, creating quality jobs as well as prioritizing social objectives. This way people in marginalized groups can feel more empowered and feel included in their jobs.1 The video below from Caritas Europe explains a bit more about social economy and putting people before profits. 2

The contemporary use of the term Solidarity economy appears to have emerged in both France and South America in the early 1980s. European concepts of solidarity economy emerged from a long tradition of ‘social economy’, activism and policy, oriented toward addressing social and economic exclusion.

The concept stems from the world of cooperatives. It wants to give groups democratic control over economic processes. Labor is not seen as a production factor, but as a process in which a person can free and develop himself. And economics is not seen as a separate process, but viewed within a lot of dimensions such as social, political, ecological and the cultural. The solidarity economy seeks to nurture these values, as opposed to individualistic, competitive values, divisiveness of racism, classism, and sexism that characterize capitalism. With this, the solidarity economy also moves on the public area, in which it strives for a more just society.3,4

The solidarity economy exists in all sectors of the economy5.Non-monetized activities that are often motivated by solidarity, such as care labor and community nurturing are part of the solidarity economy. A lot of cooperative and grassroot economic initiatives already exist, often hidden or marginalized by the dominant economy. Examples of this are: worker, consumer and producer cooperatives; fair trade initiatives; community-run social centers; community development; credit unions; community gardens; open source free software initiatives; community supported agriculture programs and more.

An example of one of these more traditional coop types is The Co-operative College. This is an educational charity in Manchester which is dedicated to the promotion of co-operative values, ideas and principles within co-operatives, communities and society. It’s core values are Self-help, Self-responsibility, Democracy, Equality, Equity and Solidarity. This charity wants to empower and inspire individuals and communities to build a fairer world. It for helps people improve their lives, creating sustainable, fair and equitable communities.6

Ethan Miller in papers and reports from the U.S. Social Forum 2007:

“ While incredibly diverse, these initiatives share a broad set of values that stand in bold contrast to those of the dominant economy. - The core idea is simple: alternatives are everywhere and our task is to identify them and connect them in ways that build a coherent and powerful social movement for another economy . In this way, solidarity economy is not so much a model of economic organization as it is a process of economic organizing ; it is not a vision , but an active process of collective visioning” 7

A subset of solidarity economy is a commons-based peer production. This production contains a model of socio-economic production in which large numbers of people work cooperatively, often over the internet. This way, contributors of such a peer to peer production van create shared value through open contributory systems. Commons-based projects have less hierarchical structures than traditional business models and organizes labor relations differently than most traditional productions. The term is often used interchangeably with the term social production.8

Learning Circle Solidarity Economy

My definition

In my view, cooperative and solidarity economy cares mostly for putting people before profit. It looks at what an individual can mean for a bigger cause. I think cooperative and solidarity economy is an interesting way of thinking about the economy that opens up spaces of possibility for a more just, sustainable and democratic economy. Also, the fact that this type of economy exists in all sectors of economy is interesting. The fact that this Peer production can be innovative within the context of capitalist competition is one of the reasons why this type of economy can really grow into a more dominant position in the current economy.

A downside of this type of economy might be that it is very dependent on these smaller movements and people. There might be initiatives that share similar values of a solidarity economy, but identify with different terms like a ‘local living economy’ of ‘social economy’. It can be hard to effectively link up different cooperatives into federative structures to build a broader solidarity economy. Maybe a platform for these initiatives to recognize each other's values in each other would be a way to overcome this problem.

Enspiral is a more concrete example of solidarity economy. What Enspiral does differently, is to work independently on projects, but to pool their profit to protect every member’s livelihoods. It is a virtual and physical network of companies and professionals brought together by a set of shared values and a passion for positive social impact. It’s sort of a “DIY” social enterprise support network. At its heart, it’s a group of people who want to co-create an encouraging, diverse community of people trying to make a difference.9

Something that makes me think is the independence you need for these types of organizations in order to work. Enspiral, for example tries to maximize both collaboration and autonomy, so everyone who joins needs to find your own way. There’s less official support, which might be hard for some people. This reminds me of the concept of commons: A shared responsibility and collaboration is needed in order for this to work. See the commons folder for more!


Citation

  1. Be.solidarityeconomy.eu. 2015. From http://be.solidarityeconomy.eu/
  2. Social Economy: Putting people before profits benefits everyone. 2017, 31 maart. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-g_3Hzb7ec
  3. Dirnbach, E. (2020, 26 juni). What role do cooperatives and the “solidarity economy” play in class struggle? From https://organizing.work/2019/07/what-role-do-cooperatives-and-the-solidarity-economy-play-in-class-struggle/
  4. Cooperatives. 2017, 19 juni. From https://proutglobe.org/prout/socio-economics/economics/economic-democracy/cooperatives/
  5. Seven ways to build the solidarity economy. 2018, september 4th . From https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/transformation/seven-ways-to-build-solidarity-economy/
  6. International Development. 2017, 19 juni. From https://www.co-op.ac.uk/Pages/Category/international
  7. Solidarity economy: building alternatives for people and planet ; papers and reports from the U.S. Social Forum 2007 – Allard, Davidson, & Matthaei – ChangeMaker Publications – 2008
  8. Commons-Based Peer Production - P2P Foundation. 2019, august 5th). From: https://wiki.p2pfoundation.net/Commons-Based_Peer_Production
  9. E. 2020. About Enspiral. From https://enspiral.com/pages/about


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