This collection of essays and critical commentary introduces the reader to developments in the European 'third sector.' As is well known among analysts of welfare policy there, the West European welfare state has been in trouble for at least two decades because of budget stringency and dissatisfaction with the quality and scope of services, as well as broader developments such as the integration of formerly socialist Central and Eastern European states, the decline of western social democratic parties, and the privatization/commercialization of much welfare provision. The editors posit a distinctly European view of the third sector in Europe, one that is based on empirical observations and a 'historical dynamic' perspective focusing on developments within specific societies. Thus, they reject the applicability to European conditions of American analytical categories, based on US experience, and contend that the American forprofit/non-profit binary distinction and emphases on government and market failures do not fit Europe's history or present reality. Rather, their analyses reflect the frequency of profit and surplus sharing in Europe's third sector, the unique historical experiences of Western European societies, and the key roles of sociological and political perspectives among European analysts, policy makers, and the general public. With such concepts in mind, they examine the evolution of various types of third sector institutions across a number of European societies-for example, associations, cooperatives, mutual aid societies, charities, charitable foundations, and voluntary agencies. Their launch point is the idea of a social economy in which the state, the market, and the third sector interact rather than operate independently. The third sector is not subordinate to the other two; it is not something outside the normal operations of society, polity, and economy. Rather, it is intermediary in a system of many types of embedded civil society institutions. Indeed, Evers and LaVille reject the idea of a single civil society, asserting that there are many types of civil societies. In their view, the third sector holds a coordinate place in society and may operate in concert

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Over the past few decades a new associationism and cooperativism perspective that takes on a broader, civil-society and solidarity-based view of the economy has developed in France. This perspective resonates with the long tradition of “reform-economics” that France is known for and expresses an understanding of economic relationships as embedded in non-market and non-monetary social relationships. Such broadly understood conceptions of economic activity defy narrow definitions of profit orientation, production and distribution. Economic activity motives include social and political ones that link 'civil entrepreneurs' in solidarity networks to service recipients and other stakeholders. One of the functional foundations of this new interdependent notion of the economy is the growing 'tertiarization' of economic activities, that is the “intensification of social interactions within productive systems” (Perret and Roustang 1993: 59 - 60). While the market economy is dependent on the non-monetary economy, the tertiarisation of production activities accentuates the interdependence between the market economy and non-market economies. This article seeks to analyze the links between the re-emergence of a civil and solidarity-based economy to the evolution of new forms of public commitment and the changing structures of productive activities in France. It further argues for a theoretical perspective that provides an analytical framework for a more comprehensive approach to the empirical complexity of social economic considerations consisting of three economic spheres: the for-profit economy, the public sector economy and the generally locally based non-monetary reciprocity based economy. Given its ability to link these three poles the civil and solidarity-based economy can revitalize social and political link and consolidate the social fabric while at the same time creating jobs. Yet despite this potential, its mission cannot be to the problems of unemployment and other failures of the market economy. It is instead to facilitate relationships between paid and volunteer work in a context that makes users, workers and volunteers the participants in collectively designed services and economic relationships.society, civil non profit organizations, cooperatives, stakeholders, social economics,

ResumoNeste artigo, o autor analisa, à luz da teoria da dádiva, a evolução das instituições da economia social, confrontando as concepções que orientavam sua criação às constatações empíricas de seu funcionamento. Constatando, com Mauss, não haver um modo único de organização da economia que expresse uma ordem natural, mas sim diferentes formas de produção e de repartição que coexistem, conclui que, passar a um projeto democrático de mudança social implica levantar a questão das instituições em condições de assegurar a pluralidade da economia para inscrevê-la em um quadro democrático.Palavras chave: Economia social. Associativismo. Sociologia econômica. Dádiva.Social change and the theory of solidarity economy. A Maussian approach 1 AbstractIn this article, the author examines, in the light of the theory of the gift, the development of social economy institutions, contrasting their early conceptions

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A economia solidária: Um movimento internacional o artigo mostra como em diferentes contextos nacionais e continentais se gerou um movimento de economia solidária. a diversidade de práticas no seio da sociedade civil local e internacional merece ser sublinhada. esta geração de iniciativas, simultaneamente políticas e econômicas surgidas nas últimas décadas, prolonga e renova a economia social, oferecendo, assim, propostas concretas para uma outra economia, num período de crise capitalista. Como tal, não pode ser ignorada na busca de um modelo económico e de uma acção pública renovada.

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