What is Solidarity Economy?
Solidarity economy refers to a wide range of economic activities and organizational forms that prioritize social profitability, democratic participation, and ecological sustainability over purely financial returns. It aims to prioritize social profitability instead of purely financial profits. A key feature that distinguishes solidarity economy entities from private and public enterprises is the participatory and democratic nature of governance in decision-making processes.
The International Labour Organization defines the social and solidarity economy as encompassing enterprises, organizations and other entities that are engaged in economic, social, and environmental activities to serve the collective and/or general interest, which are based on the principles of voluntary cooperation and mutual aid, democratic and/or participatory governance, autonomy and independence, and the primacy of people and social purpose over capital in the distribution and use of surpluses and/or profits as well as assets.
Core principles include solidarity, cooperation, equity across all dimensions (race, class, gender), participatory democracy, environmental sustainability, and pluralism. It’s both a means of self defence for surviving and sustaining communities through the onslaught of neoliberalism and wider economic uncertainty, as well as a framework and set of tools people across the world are using to create transformative and liberatory change.
Origins & Lineage
“Solidarity economy” was used as an economic organizing concept as early as 1937, when Felipe Alaiz advocated for the development of economic solidarity among worker collectives in urban and rural areas during the Spanish Civil War. However, the contemporary movement has distinct roots.
Chilean sociologist Luis Razeto Migliaro is often credited with coining the expression “solidarity economy” in the 1980s. Razeto popularized the term after it was coined by a grassroots organizer in Chile. His 1984 work Economía de Solidaridad y Mercado Democrático became foundational to the movement. In France, Jean-Louis Laville developed parallel intellectual histories examining solidarity since the Industrial Revolution, holding a chair in Solidarity Economy at the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts in Paris.
It emerged more widely as a term in Latin America over the past twenty years in response to community and worker demands to expand forms of social inclusion and unity. Different conceptions originated among movements seeking to create grassroots economies during the military dictatorships that dominated Latin America during the 1970s and 1980s and subsequently, flourished as of the emergence of financial neoliberal democracies in the 1990s up to the present.
The first period was constituted by an associationalism based on democratic solidarity initiated by various groups (indigenous self-organizations in South America, women and African-American in North America, pioneering workers in Europe). The second period saw the recognition of different legal statuses: those of the cooperative, the mutual society and the non-profit organization.
The global movement coalesced through a series of international gatherings. Social movements and SSE organisations held a first international meeting Lima in July 1997. This led, after a second international meeting in Quebec City in 2001, to the official creation of the Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of Social Solidarity Economy (RIPESS). The first World Social Forum in 2001 marked the creation of the Global Network of the Solidarity Socioeconomy. By the time of the 2004 World Social Forum in Mumbai, India, the Global Network had grown to include 47 national and regional solidarity economy networks from nearly every continent.
Brazil has one of the most advanced solidarity economies and ecosystems in the world. The solidarity economy and overall movement picked up in Brazil during the late 1990s as the country was impacted by global macroeconomic trends and a rise in capital market volatility.
How It’s Practiced
Solidarity economy manifests through diverse organizational forms and practices. According to national circumstances, the SSE includes cooperatives, associations, mutual societies, foundations, social enterprises, self-help groups and other entities operating in accordance with the values and principles of the SSE.
Concrete examples include:
Worker cooperatives: Businesses are owned and managed by the workers rather than a single owner capturing all of the business’s profit. The Mondragon system of cooperatives in Spain was formed in Basque country after the victory of Franco’s fascists. Today, Mondragon is a network of 95 separate and self-governing cooperatives that employ around 80,000 people.
Community land trusts: Shared-equity housing models that stabilize housing for low-income households while maintaining long-term affordability.
Mutual aid networks: These can include bartering; sharing time, resources, and skills; and receiving help yourself. During the COVID-19 pandemic, mutual aid food networks emerged as significant SSE practices. A case study from Tompkins County, New York, describes outdoor food cabinets and community refrigerators supporting food-insecure households.
Fair trade organizations: Their aim is to express practical solidarity with farmers in the developing world by paying them fair prices for their produce.
Community-supported agriculture: Direct relationships between farmers and consumers based on shared risk and benefit.
Credit unions and community finance: Models such as the Grameen system in Bangladesh and group-lending SHGs in India and Nepal have expanded credit access. India’s Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) represents a well-documented example of union–cooperative collaboration, combining collective bargaining with cooperative enterprise to support informal women workers.
Practices emphasize democratic decision-making, with governance structures ensuring active participation of all stakeholders. Revenue surpluses are reinvested according to collective priorities rather than distributed to private shareholders.
Solidarity Economy Today
The solidarity economy operates as a decentralized global movement with strong regional expressions. RIPESS-LAC uses the solidarity economy framework. Despite some differences in definition, there is broad agreement about its systemic and transformative agenda and that it is built around a core of ethical principles. Quebec builds on the concept of the social economy and seeks to create a movement for transformation that is very practical and grounded at the local, territorial level. The U.S. Solidarity Economy Network deliberately chose to work within the solidarity economy framework, as an unambiguously transformative movement.
Economies based on solidarity and cooperation have historically been used by oppressed peoples in many parts of the world, notably across the Global South, as well as by Black communities in the U.S., residents of low-income neighborhoods, and historically disadvantaged groups that frequently experience economic disparities and limited access to resources. As these communities often have distinct needs and face various hardships, they develop solutions that reflect their particular social contexts, such as community-owned businesses, cooperatives, and mutual aid networks.
The movement gained institutional recognition when the International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted a definition of the social and solidarity economy in 2022. The UN has established an Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy to raise visibility within the UN system.
Practitioners engage through conferences, networks, and local organizing. RIPESS continues to convene global forums, with meetings held in Lima (1997), Quebec (2001), Dakar (2005), Luxembourg (2009), and Manila (2013). Regional networks operate across Latin America, North America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.
Common Misconceptions
Not simply “socially responsible business”: In the context of the US and Canada, this distinction is incredibly important, because solidarity economy movements are vulnerable to elite capture through the nonprofit industrial complex and neoliberal social enterprise models. Solidarity economy requires transformative redistribution of power and resources, not merely ethical consumption.
Not charity or aid: Solidarity economies are transformative — they redistribute power and resources to those who have been most harmed by white supremacy, settler colonialism, patriarchy, ableism, and capitalism — and meet an immediate material need for a community. They are not symbolic, but actually delivering the housing, food, education, culture, and other needs humans require to thrive.
Not a fixed blueprint: Its very nature and definition are in continual development, discussed and debated among its advocates. Seeking to “make the road by walking” rather than to push a closed or finalized ideology, solidarity economy is a “movement of movements” continually seeking connections and possibilities while holding on to the transformative commitment of shared values.
Not opposed to markets: Think of solidarity economy as an alternative both to capitalism and to authoritarian state control. While some programs might produce goods for the market, the main goal is community benefits over private gain. Many solidarity economy entities engage in market exchange while maintaining democratic governance and social purpose.
How to Begin
Learn from existing networks: The U.S. Solidarity Economy Network (USSEN), founded following the 2007 U.S. Social Forum, offers resources and connections. RIPESS provides international documentation and networking opportunities through socioeco.org.
Study foundational thinkers: Begin with the translated interviews and writings of Luis Razeto Migliaro. Jean-Louis Laville’s The Solidarity Economy (University of Minnesota Press) provides European historical context. Emily Kawano and Julie Matthei have written accessible analyses of the North American context.
Engage local practices: Experiment with formal or informal mutual aid practices. These can include bartering; sharing time, resources, and skills; and receiving help yourself. Consider self-provisioning. Are there things you can do, make, or grow for yourself and others? Possibilities include arts and crafts, music, gardening, preserving food, making beverages, raising chickens, do-it-yourself projects, and knitting.
Join or form a cooperative: Worker cooperatives, housing cooperatives, and consumer cooperatives offer direct experience with democratic economic governance. The Democracy at Work Institute and the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives provide technical support.
Connect to social movements: Solidarity economy is strongest when linked to movements for food sovereignty, housing justice, labor rights, and climate justice. Look for convergence spaces where economic alternatives connect to broader struggles for systemic change.