Contenu du sommaire : Economie solidaire : des initiatives locales à l'action publique

The principle of reciprocity by Karl POLANYI. Contribution to a definition of solidarity-based economy. Karl POLANYI has an indirect understanding of the societies that were part of the Third World in the fifties. From anthropologists he came out with the principle of reciprocity. He then opposed this principle of economic integration to both redistribution and market principles. Reciprocity can neither be viewed as a practice of primitive societies (as in evolutionist approaches) nor as a gift and counter-gift exchange. Reciprocity needs to be understood as a social whole and through a claimed mutual dependency. In this approach, reciprocity allows to set up the definition of the solidarity-based economy.

Microfinance and social practises of parayairs women in South India. Solidarity « organised » or « solidarity inherited » ? The paper is an anthropological case study which describes a microfinance project carried out by an Indian NGO in Tamil Nadu. Based on a partial analysis of the multiform aspects of solidarity, the paper attempts to demonstrate the complexity of theses practises and their representations. From the « solidarity organized » by the NGO to the solidarity « inherited » of the women belonging to the paraiyar community, the concept of duty remains essential in the understanding of the economics of Indian solidarities.

Can Indian microfinance be solidarity-based ? How and under which conditions can microfinance promote solidarity, solidarity being defined in terms of capability to redistribute power and wealth and to reinvent new forms of democracy ? Based on Indian cases studies, the paper gives evidence to the numerous challenges faced by microfinance organisations when they try to extend their role beyond the provision of financial services. Solidarity production is, of course, the result of deliberate choices and strategies elaborated by microfinance organisations, but solidarity is also highly dependant from socio-economic and socio-political contexts of intervention and the ways local people and clients use, manipulate and appropriate microfinance interventions.

New forms of non capitalist production in Brazil. Meaning and faisability. Based on the results of the first national research on the solidarity-based economy in Brazil, this article presents the profiles of the solidarity based economy enterprises, their processes of creation and institutionalization. The author identifies the conditions of the expansion of these initiatives and their limits. He analyses to what extent the introduction of the principles of self management and cooperation within the organisation is effective and influences the working conditions of the members. From the analysis of the empirical data, the main factors of viability of the solidarity-based economy are underlined. In spite of various socio-economical limitations, these initiatives improve, in most of the cases, the material life of the workers and, at the same time, provide concrete experiences of autonomy at work.

Solidarity-based economy in French speaking Africa. Paradoxes and assets. Debates on activities qualified as « social and solidarity economics » in French speaking countries in the eighties have been recently transposed from the West to French speaking African countries. A large number of works identify and assess these different practices and activities stemming from a newly structured social and solidarity economics in French speaking African countries. In this paper, we show that transposing this concept to these countries can be ambiguous specifically because of the underlying paradoxes behind such a transfer. We then identify the conditions under which such a transfer is meaningful in elaborating original development modes.

The Bolivian movement of solidarity-based economy. Economic and political dimensions of a collective action. « Solidarity-based economy » claims to be on the one hand, a way to organize the practices of financing, production and trade relying on solidarities and on the other hand, an economy which is socially aware and which claims to be part of the democratic debate. Focusing on the Bolivian case and using the concept of collective action defined by Alberto MELUCCI, the paper investigates the main issues at stakes and the main challenges of this articulation. The author analyses and discusses the necessary conditions which should allow to extend collective action from the level of solidarity-based organizations to larger political networks.

National Initiative for Human Development and solidarity-based economy in Morocco. For a better access to water and sanitation. Huge transformations are occurring in Morocco in the field of urban of basic amenities, especially sanitation and drinking water, in favour of the poorest populations. Forecasting new paradigms, the National Initiative for the Human Development opens new perspectives on diverse strategic questions : slowing down of the discourse claiming for the deregulation and the commoditisation of public services, emergence of innovative modalities of urban governance based on wider ideological and conceptual references and, at last, emergence of a solidarity-based economy in this new dynamic of the urban development in Morocco.

Public policies for solidarity-based economy in Brazil. Labour, inclusion and social capital. The paper suggests that the constitution of social capital is instrumental in the constitution of a solidarity-based economy. Defined in a simplistic manner, social capital means the whole set of goods that the members of a group have access to on behalf of their group membership. In Brazil, new public policies in the field of solidarity-based economy emerge at the local level. The analysis of several municipalities shows that the success of these public policies depends upon how the administrators understand local, national and global dynamics. Social capital does emerge is some regions, however communications gaps within the networks prevent a real circulation and effectiveness of social capital.

Is a new economy possible without an (other) policy ? Lessons from Latin America. Building alternative, non capitalist, forms of micro and meso economic organization is a necessary path to solve massive exclusion in Latin America. Multiple but fragmented initiatives are already in process at the grass-root level. However, in order to be sustainable socially, economically and politically, these initiatives have to constitute themselves into a organic system. This cannot be achieved without cooperation, deliberation and democratic dialogue. As a consequence, it is crucial to include political action within the agenda of solidarity-based economics movements.

The Hypothesis of Social Capital. An application to Finance and Development. During the last few years a lot of papers have been written about “social capital”. These papers are of two types. One sort of papers are looking for the definition of “social capital” and their main subject is the theoretical relevance of the concept ; another approach looks for empirical proofs concerning the relation between social capital and other variables measuring economic performance, or results in education or health, among others. The present contribution wants to reflect most of these debates, without avoiding the difficulties in the definition of the concept, but insisting in the interest of a pragmatic approach. Our point of view being that, if we succeed in gathering enough empirical proofs about a relation between social links and economic performance or development process, this would mean that something exists behind the concept, possibly not yet sufficiently precise, of “social capital”.

The Malagasy Environmental Action Plan. From creation to problems of implementation : an environmental sociopolitical analysis. The World Bank set the pace for creating the Malagasy Environmental Action Plan. This institution played a predominant role in identifying the objectives of the Plan and the roles played by the various participants involved. By defining “an environmental problem” and developing a public policy action plan to resolve this issue, the “Washington diagnosis” on natural resources served as a building block for what was presented as a national policy that would serve the interests of everyone involved — rural populations included. However, the “autopsy” of this development process shines light on how problems can initially be identified, with direct consequences on policy building and whether or not they take diverse interests into account.