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Written by Hugh Morrow
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Wednesday, 06 December 2006 |
The term “social economy”, also referred to in France as “économie solidaire” first appeared in this country at the beginning of the 19th century. It was nevertheless only at the beginning of the 20th century that it began to be employed to indicate various entities aiming at improving collective working conditions and individual lives.
This concept is now also used by the Anglo-Saxon countries to refer to the production of goods and services provided not solely by the non-profit sector, but also, in some cases, by private enterprises with shareholder agreements that force the majority of shareholders to agree to social objectives undertaken by the firm. Among the organisations belonging to the social economy, one can find associations, co-operatives and mutual organisations and more recently also foundations. This type of economy is essentially regulated by the stakeholder principle, which stands in stark contrast to the notion of shareholder capitalism. The “social economy” is a broader concept than the non-profit sector, as it is less strictly bound to the non-distributional constraint, according to which organisations cannot legally redistribute their surplus to their owners (see also “Third Sector”).
Source: The Non-profit Sector in a Changing Economy, 2003, p12 |
