Abstract
This chapter presents two main reflections. First, it flags the risk of not knowing how to properly grasp the potential of a particular term. Second, and not unrelated, it highlights how the credibility of social economy/third sector studies has been compromised – especially among social economy researchers. The term “social economy” has existed in Europe since 1905 when introduced by economist Charles Gidé. The three major components of social economy in Europe are cooperatives, mutual societies, and associations. All three share a formal meaning of being associations of persons; as a result of this formal meaning their main characteristic lies in their governance, which is based on the democratic principle of one person one vote. In particular, the relationships based on collaboration among the private sector, government, and social economy organizations are crucial to understanding the profile of the social economy.
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Notes
- 1.
For a more in-depth look at Charles Gidé (1847–1932), see Marc Penin (2006). The historical school of economics was an approach to academic economics and to public administration that emerged in nineteenth-century Germany and held sway there until well into the twentieth century. This school held that history was the key source of knowledge about human action and economic matters, since economics was culture specific and hence not generalizable over space and time. In English-speaking countries, the historical school is perhaps the least known and least understood approach to the study of economics, yet it forms the basis – both in theory and in practice – of the social market economy, for many decades the dominant economic paradigm in most countries of continental Europe.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
According to the European Commission (2000), organizations that belong to third system are private, autonomous groups with the following characteristics: the aim is not profit; limit profit distribution; paid work; an explicit aim to benefit the community or a specific group of people; a participatory nature, which involves the persons affected by the activity; multi-stakeholder organization.
- 5.
The University of Québec has campuses throughout Québec Province. Louis Favreau is part of the Université du Québec in Outaouais (http://www.uqo.ca). Bênoit Lévesque and Marie Claire Malo are part of the Université du Québec in Montréal (http://www.uqam.ca).
- 6.
Bernard Lavergne (1884–1975) was a law professor in Lille, France, an influential member of the cooperative movement in France, and a member of the Political Economy Society. In 1938, he published a book entitled Grandeur et déclin du Capitalisme.
- 7.
This journal’s history, from its inception as the Annales de la Regie Directe to the present, is outlined in Geerkens (2008).
- 8.
To understand the importance of Milhaud in Annales, see Geerkens (2008).
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Vidal, I. (2010). Social Economy. In: Taylor, R. (eds) Third Sector Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5707-8_6
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