Abstract

As economic crises, growing inequality and climate change prompt a global debate on the meaning and trajectory of development, increasing attention is focusing on 'social and solidarity economy' as a distinctive approach to sustainable and rights-based development. While we are beginning to understand what social and solidarity economy is, what it promises and how it differs from 'business as usual', we know far less about whether it can really move beyond its fringe status in many countries and regions. Under what conditions can social and solidarity economy scale up and scale out - that is, expand in terms of the growth of social and solidarity economy organizations and enterprises, or spread horizontally within given territories? Bringing together leading researchers, blending theoretical and empirical analysis, and drawing on experiences and case studies from multiple countries and regions, this volume addresses these questions. In so doing, it aims to inform a broad constituency of development actors, including scholars, practitioners, activists and policy makers.

'Social and Solidarity Economy is essential reading for understanding this growing international citizen-based movement for a more inclusive and democratic economy. Each chapter illustrates how the social and solidarity economy can actively contribute to the emergence of a new, more sustainable and equitable development model for our planet.'
Nancy Neamtan, Chantier de l'économie sociale of Quebec

'This book is a major pioneering work which critically documents the role and potential, as well as the challenges, of the social and solidarity economy in a worldwide perspective. It also reflects the leadership of UNRISD and the persistent efforts of Peter Utting to place SSE in the debates within and around the United Nations system.'
Jacques Defourny, Centre for Social Economy, HEC-University of Liege, Belgium

'The growing presence of the social and solidarity economy on all continents points to the real possibility of social, civic, ecological and technological changes that are conducive to more human-oriented growth models. This book demonstrates clearly how the social and solidarity economy can play its full role, without borders, as a friend of the Earth and of humankind.'
Thierry Jeantet, president of the the Mont-Blanc Meetings and author of Des Croissances

'Coming at a time when citizens around the world are searching for economic and organizational alternatives to the prevailing neoliberal economic model, and full of convincing examples and practical solutions, this book is a source of inspiration for everyone.'
Jürgen Schwettmann, director, Department for Partnerships and Field Support, International Labour Organization

'By examining the conditions for scaling up social and solidarity economy, this book brings the politics of emancipation into the sustainable, inclusive and right-based development agenda. It does so in a reflexive and inspiring manner, pointing to spaces and strategies for capacity building, institutional innovation and social change, without neglecting either the internal constraints or the oppositional forces.'
Isabelle Hillenkamp, IRD-CESSMA

'This book provides a progressive assessment of the history, theory, practice and potential of SSE over a wide geographical range. It is particularly good on scaling up to meet the challenges of competition and partnership with state, corporate and popular economies today.'
Keith Hart, London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Pretoria

Peter Utting is international coordinator of the Center for Social Economy (Centro para la Economía Social or CES), based in Nicaragua, and a senior research associate of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD). Until August 2014 he was the deputy director of UNRISD, where he coordinated international research projects on social and solidarity economy and corporate social responsibility. He was instrumental in establishing the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy in 2013. Recent publications include Business Regulation and Non-State Actors: Whose Standards? Whose Development? (co-edited with Darryl Reed and Ananya Mukherjee-Reed, 2012), The Global Crisis and Transformative Social Change (co-edited with Shahra Razavi and Rebecca Varghese Buchholz, 2012) and Corporate Social Responsibility and Regulatory Governance (co-edited with José Carlos Marques, 2010).