La nouvelle frontière de l’économie sociale et solidaire : l’intérêt général ?

Abstract

Les liens entre l’économie sociale et solidaire et l’intérêt général sont protéiformes – historiques, juridiques, politiques et plus largement dans les discours et les pratiques (ou tout au moins dans certaines pratiques) – et territoriaux (France-Europe). C’est ce que nous allons analyser dans un premier temps. Mais ces liens sont ambigus et renvoient à des questionnements essentiels, notamment sur le partage des objectifs poursuivis par les acteurs et les pouvoirs publics. En outre, si l’attraction de l’intérêt général s’explique par son aura, il convient de prendre la mesure des contraintes induites et d’apprécier avec plus de mesure les incidences d’une allégeance. Ces liens posent également la question de la construction des politiques publiques et de la capacité des acteurs de l’ESS à porter un projet politique.The connections between the social and solidarity economy and public interest are protean – historical, legal, political, and more broadly concerning discourse and practice (or at least certain practices) – and geographical (France-Europe). We first look at this aspect. However, the connections are ambiguous and raise fundamental questions particularly about the extent to which the social economy and the public sector share objectives. In addition, although the idea of public interest has a certain aura about it, it is important to appreciate the implied constraints and not overestimate the impact of this allegiance. These connections also raise the issue of how public policy is made and the ability of social and solidarity economy organizations to develop a political project

What is the social and solidarity economy? A review of concepts

“…These collaborations also involve some risks for the SSE entities, such as the possibility to divert from its social goals and values, to lose the support of stakeholders (e.g. public authorities, donors or volunteers) who may look unfavourably on the collaboration, and the reputational risk of being involved in greenwashing or social-washing strategies (Ebrahim, Battilana and Mair, 2014 [139]; Herlin, 2013 [140]). SSE entities need therefore to find a way to engage in these cross-sectoral collaborations that will be aligned with both their economic and social objectives (Huybrechts, Nicholls and Edinger, 2017 [125]) in order to shift the focus from "whether or not" to collaborate towards "why" engage in these collaborations and "how" to find the right fit between the SSE and for-profit businesses (Herlin, 2013[140]).…”

Policy Guide on Legal Frameworks for the Social and Solidarity Economy

“…[7] POLICY GUIDE ON LEGAL FRAMEWORKS FOR THE SOCIAL AND SOLIDARITY ECONOMY © OECD 2023 Salamon, L. and W. Sokolowski (2018), The Size and Composition of the European Third Sector, Palgrave Macmillan, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71473-8_3. [21] Terpan, F. (2015), "Soft Law in the European Union-The Changing Nature of EU Law", European Law Journal, Vol. 21/1, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14680386/2015/21/1.…”

“…The term social economy is prevalent in Europe and includes a broad and diverse set of organisational forms (Noya and Clarence, 2007[16]; OECD, 2014 [17]). The notion of third sector is positioned between the state and the market and encompasses organisations that do not qualify as private or public sector entities (OECD, n.d. [20]; Mertens, 1999 [18]; Salamon and Sokolowski, 2018 [21]). Some countries used this concept when developing their legal frameworks, including the United Kingdom and Italy (Galera and Chiomento, 2022 [3]).…”

“…In Finland, the Act on Social Enterprises (2003, last amended in 2019) has strongly focused on creating employment opportunities by requiring that 30% of social enterprise employees have a disability or experience long-term unemployment. In Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Romania, Slovenia and Spain, statuses recognising WISEs specifically have been introduced to facilitate work integration of people with disability (European Commission, 2020 [21]) In 2022, Poland passed the Act on Social Economy regulating the social enterprise status. This status is available to several legal forms, provided they operate for the purpose of reintegration (persons at risk of social exclusion will account for 30% of the employed in total) or for providing social services to the local community.…”

“…Comparative synthesis report, Publications Office of the European Union, https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=738&langId=en&pubId=8274&furtherPubs=yes. [21] European Commission (2019), Social Enterprises and Their Ecosystems in Europe: Romania, https://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=20959&langId=en. [10] process of firms and is particularly important for multi-national enterprises that operate across numerous different national legal, social and environmental contexts.…”