Solidary economy and the revitalization of the cooperative paradigm

Solidary economy encompasses a range of experiences that invigorate the workers' associative traditions due to its emphasis on self-management, its critical approach to the capitalist order and the impulsion it propitiates to new social actors, both at the local and the global level. In this context, new cooperatives of production and services, whose rationality involves aspects of solidarity and entrepreneurship, have been developing the social as well the political dimensions of the economic enterprise in favor of the workers. Therefore, the heterogeneous and controversial field of the cooperative system is undergoing processes of questioning and renovation. This article develops these themes on a historical perspective, based on bibliographical revision and empirical research, highlighting especially data provided by the first National Mapping of Solidary Economy. Adapted from the source document.