Solidarity economic enterprise and social enterprise:Broadening approaches and integrating concepts in the North-South dialogue

Abstract

Economic initiatives that emphasize the creation of social value have significantly increased in recent decades, requiring the construction of concepts and typologies that allow their knowledge, comparison and analysis worldwide, which is the purpose of the research project "International Comparative Social Enterprise Models" (ICSEM). In this paper, researchers involved in the ICSEM project aim to analyze the solidarity economic enterprise - typical from Southern countries - as a case of social enterprise according to the criteria and indicators of the EMES Model (European), identifying correspondences and differences. This is a theoretical study, which concluded that the solidarity economic enterprise is a case of social enterprise. However, distinctive characteristics of solidarity economy (such as: self-management, protagonism of excluded people and substantive economic rationality) evokes adaptations in social, economic and political criteria, enabling a new model for solidarity enterprises and also a broader and multicultural dimension in the theoretical analysis of social enterprises.