This year again during the Avignon Festival, UFISC is offering several highlights, meetings, workshops and training sessions on July 11, 15 and 17 in the ISTS room, as part of the Maison des professionnels du Spectacle Vivant and the Village des professionnels du OFF, including a special event organized in conjunction with the Collectif pour démarche de progrès par les droits culturels and Opale CRDLA-Culture.
Solidarity Oxford is a website and digital map which has been produced as part of the Solidarity Economy Association’s Mapping the Solidarity Economy in Oxford pilot project.
Oxford has a whole host of organisations, projects and people working to create a just and sustainable city. From swap shops and childcare circles to housing co-ops and community farms, we’ve got a thriving network of initiatives meeting the needs of our communities in ways that put people, and our environment, first.
Around the world, activity like this is known as the solidarity economy. In many cities and countries – from New York City to Barcelona, and from Mali to Brazil – solidarity economy initiatives play a fundamental role in people’s lives.
In New York City, a group of people came together to create a map of their solidarity economy, and this map has helped to make their city’s communities more onnected, their projects and initiatives stronger, and has helped more people to be able to access the products and services they need in ethical and sustainable ways.
We’ve been exploring whether creating a map in Oxford is similarly helpful for our communities.
A big part of SEA’s mission is to make the solidarity economy in the UK stronger, and to encourage more people to find out about it and support in their local area. Our Mapping the Solidarity Economy in Oxford pilot project is about celebrating what’s important in our city’s communities, and showing how all the different projects, initiatives and organisations are helping to create a more just and sustainable world.
Together, we are creating an alternative economy based on cooperation and self-determination, which empowers everyone, regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender or background, and which cares about the health and well-being of people and the planet.
Our longer-term vision is also to show how the solidarity economy that exists in communities, cities and regions in the United Kingdom is part of a much larger movement of people around the world, all working to transform our economic system into a system that works for all.
Download our Pilot Project Report
More info here
by Elena Tzamouranou, DOCK (Greece)
Several members of Ripess Europe participated in the 10th edition of the ILO Academy on SSE that was held in Turin, Italy, from the 3rd to the 7th June 2019. We expanded our knowledge on frameworks and discussed SSE and the Future of Work along with over 100 people from all around the world responsible for the promotion of SSE, including policy-makers, practitioners, researchers and representatives of workers’ and employers’ organizations.
Some insight on the issues addressed
The very well organized and diverse program included discussions about policies in different countries and contexts, challenges and opportunities, study visits, but also how the social and solidarity economy relates to social and environmental issues, such as the care, informal, green, rural economy and gender equality.
The main three key topics addressed and linked to social solidarity economy were:
- Future of work
- Human-in-command approach to technology
- Social inclusion of vulnerable groups
What we’ve learned
Admitting each session and discussion included useful information and conclusions, we’ve chosen to focus on some points that we consider to be fundamental:
- As emerged from several cases two pre-conditions have to be met in order for SSE to be visible and develop on a national level: related legislation and supporting financial instruments
- SSE development on a national level is significant but not sufficient enough. It also requires the involvement of local authorities, as many cities experience a transition in their social and economic landscape. Examples of the different local realities are the cities of: Milan (Italy), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Guro (Seoul), and Kef (Tunisia)
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The issue on defining SSE remains up-to-date and is always a subject
of creative debate! Following four possibilities on defining SSE
were pointed out from Marcelo Vieta:
- Accommodates to the capitalist system; fills in gaps due to dwindling state and growing inequalities (neoliberal view)
- Reforms or mitigates capitalist system (social-democratic view)
- Rethinks and re-configures socio-economic life (revolutionary view)
- Already existing community activities and assets, growing the SSE as a plurality of the economy in ”diverse economies” (see: Elgue,2015; J.K. Gibson-Graham, 2005; Miller, 2010; EURICSE; EMES; CIRIEC, etc.)
To read our view on Convergences and Differences in Concepts, Definitions and Frameworks, please visit: http://www.ripess.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/RIPESS_Vision-Global_EN.pdf
- The importance of education and training in SSE and SSE-related subjects was pointed out as a need by the majority of the participants in different occasions during the 10th ILO Academy.
- Another point is if the private sector could play a positive role in transforming the socio-economic model. Some examples in collaborating across the boundaries of private and non-private sector were presented. Could such examples form sustainable models or how imperative are such collaborations remains open to discuss in future.
Conclusion
SSE doesn’t guarantee that everything will be right (Jean Fabre)! Indeed, as we pointed out during the ILO Academy in numerous occasions, working in a different way, having co-ownership and self-management is a imperative, but this alone doesn’t change the socio-economic paradigm. We need to shift the focus from the enterprise to the community and think in a completely different way (as Jason Nardi pointed out).
How does a successful initiative or cooperative look like? Do we define success by the numbers of members? Do we define success by the profit generated the previous year? Sustainability is not only on being profitable today, but it’s on being sustain on economic, social and environmental terms. We need to redefine success. Success can and should be defined by the social change, the social outcomes and social impact accomplished through the economic activity.
Moreover we need to concentrate on communities: on the needs of the territory, on how to transform our economies on each different context and not to take a blueprint that comes from an unspecified model of the market. Only then can we really change the paradigm from a growth market oriented paradigm to a community well being and that is the real transformation we are looking forward.
The ILO academy was organized by the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO). Partners: Italian Ministry of Labour and Social Policies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprise (EURICSE), International Centre of Research on Social and Cooperative Economy (CIRIEC), and Fondazione Italia Sociale.
To access the materials of the 10th edition of the ILO Academy on SSE please visit: http://ssecollectivebrain.net/2019/06/07/materials-of-the-10th-ilo-academy-on-sse-turin-presentations-videos-photos-publications-etc/
From 24 to 26 June 2019, RIPESS was in Geneva (Switzerland) to attend this important international conference where participants discussed the results and role of the Social Solidarity Economy (SSE) in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
How can the Social Solidarity Economy (SSE) contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDOs)? Can local SSE projects have an impact on global development? The answers to these and many other questions were discussed at the International Conference RIPESS members presented several papers and organized the parallel session “Building the SSE movement from local to global”.
It was an opportunity to explain the alternative development model advocated by RIPESS, as well as the process of global convergence that is currently being promoted with the World Social Forum of Transformative Economies 2020.
And then we had two presentations from RIPESS members. First, Yvon Poirier of RIPESS North America presented the case study “Association for Sarva Seva Farms – ASSEFA-India: 50 Years of Sustainable Development”. You can consult the complete document here
Then, Denison Jayasooria, President of ASEC – RIPESS Asia, presented “Community Forestry Projects in Malaysia: People’s Participation in the Implementation of the ISF”. The full document is available here
The second day began with a presentation by Judith Hitchman, President of Urgenci, Community Supported Agriculture around the world and member of the RIPESS Board of Directors, entitled “How Community Supported Agriculture contributes to the realisation of Solidarity Economy in the SDGs”. It showed the deep ramifications that are possible in the specific sector of agriculture supported by the community and SWM. The full text of the article can be found here.
In the closing session, RIPESS members Judith, Denison and Laura Cicciarelli highlighted the main messages of the past two days with the OECD and the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD).
Overall, the evaluation made at the closing session was that, throughout the two-day conference, the contribution of SSE to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals was highlighted in the case studies presented.
For the future, it was agreed that the UNTFSSE, to which RIPESS actively contributes, should transmit messages from the field and prepare to work on a UN resolution on #ESS.
You can find the videos of the various sessions #SSE4SDGS on the Facebook page of the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD).
