WiserEarth Editors

The social and solidarity-based economy refers to socially-oriented economical activities which are run in favour of the setting up of a new way to live and devise the economy through about ten thousands projects in the Northern countries as well as in the Southern countries.

In this type of economy, job and people come first, before money. It is based on a democratic decision-making system, on a strong social involvement and on quality relationships. The social and solidarity-based economy contributes to the creation of job opportunities and increases the capacities of social businessmen. It helps social development and consolidates the power to act of local authorities, by setting up new positions, offering new services, improving life quality, protecting environment and by creating wealth within ethical conditions. We have to devise economy other than according to the neoliberal logic. Economy must serve the society and not the contrary. The vision of economical pluralism does not reconsider the significance of the private sector, but lauds a parallel development of the public and social economy. It comes to produce socio-economical innovation and social change and so, to develop a third path, which is neither an unconscionable neoliberalism nor a full state-owned economy.

LUX’09 will provide all of the participants with the opportunity to benefit from the potential inherent in experience that has already been acquired, to gauge its scope and to implement it more widely. Improving the way in which we share our knowledge and our know-how and making them accessible to everyone, is the best way to progress the forward-thinking approach and philosophy of which we are the proponents. That is why the workshops will have four transversal objectives:

1. To focus on the realities faced by practitioners, to combine ideas with practice in order to be as pragmatic as possible, to learn from other people’s experiences, through the way in which other people think and do things;
2. To reinforce links, to improve the quality of the relationships that exist between the various actors. This type of event provides us with the opportunity to do this, whether it be at a regional level or between regions, at a national level or between different countries, at a continent level or between continents, so as to devise new initiatives together;
3. To further develop the innovatory dimension of our activities and to explore the challenges that awaits us.

Finally, we will also have to address a fifth element, one that will be key to our future: how can we guarantee the economic survival of these initiatives and their networking within RIPESS. The social and solidarity economy offer sustainable prospects for the world’s future and as such should be given greater consideration in economic policies.