The solidarity economy : emancipatory action to challenge politics

The first part of this article focuses mainly on understanding the solidarity economy, with the help of quantitative data and examples of initiatives from Europe, the Anglosphere and Asia. The second part deepens the analysis with regard to the observation that the solidarity economy is an alternative in which, in the words of Karl Polanyi (1985), the economy is re-embedded into politics and democracy. We note that the solidarity economy combines two fundamental dimensions: first, although the middle classes participate in the solidarity economy, it is largely initiated by and for this new disaffiliated class regardless of the country or continent; secondly its utopian outlook is that of the overthrow of capitalism (as distinct from the market) since its organizational model draws much from associationist socialism and the libertarian principles of the nineteenth century that have been described elsewhere (FRERE, 2009).
However, it is precisely the failure of the associationist socialism movement, which is caught between Marxism and liberalism, that has taught us that such a model must be politically focused and organized to be effective. Finally, the last part of the article is devoted to the question of whether the solidarity economy today has the strength to assert itself as what it means to be, namely, an alternative potential model, rather than what the market and the State wants it to be: a management and accounting tool for tackling unemployment and disaffiliation.