What are the links between the social/solidarity-based economy (SSE) and sustainable development (SD)? This book, edited by Éric Dacheux, reviews the definitions of these concepts in a critical way and examines, in the field, the connections between sustainable practices and solidarity initiatives, with a view to answering three questions.
The first question concerns the desired future: what kind of transition are SSE and SD actors working towards? Is it towards a green capitalism or, on the contrary, towards a post-capitalist society? The second concerns the democratic dimension of ongoing processes: faced with ecological emergency, is it necessary to adopt a top-down approach assigning everyone their role or, on the contrary, a bottom-up approach to building collective intelligence? The third question refers to the role of scientific research with actors: how can scientific rigour be combined with practical support for action by actorson the ground?
Nine authors from various disciplines and drawing on different theories (eco-feminism, deliberation, commons, etc.) strive to answer these questions and provide an original insight into citizens’ actions aimed at making the world a better place.
Éric Dacheux is a professor at the University of Clermont Auvergne, where he founded the Communication and Solidarity Laboratory. He is a member of RIUESS (Inter-University Network of Social and Solidarity Economy) and leads the “Communication and SSE” chair. He is currently conducting research on participatory action research in the associative world.
