The Solidarity Economy in North America : An Emerging Debate - January 2007

Abstract

The language of the solidarity economy is not exactly common vocabulary in Canada or the U.S. Even among practitioners and activists in community economic development, the social economy, co-operatives, economic democracy and sustainable community development, all domains which seek to integrate social, economic and environmental action to varying degrees, one seldom hears the invocation of the solidarity economy. This paper traces the recent roots from which this evolving dialogue has emerged and then summarizes some early stage thinking about how one might describe the solidarity economy and its possible relevance to cross-cutting trends such as climate change.