The Social and Solidarity Economy. A Theoretical and Plural Framework.

Economy is not one « natural » thing; it is always plural and socially constructed. Polanyi tought us that it was a mistake to see the economy as independent from society, as a self-regulating market. He insisted on the presence of different economic principles (market, redistribution, reciprocity) in concrete human economies. As for Mauss, he taught us that progress does not lie in seeking to replace one economic system brutally with another. Rather, economic organisation always consists of a number of contradictory institutional forms, irreducible to each other and combined with different emphasis. Starting from their approaches, the idea of a « plural economy » is intended as a framework for considering relations between these complementary forms and for resolving potential conflicts among them.

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