From Distant Neighbours to Bedmates: Exploring the Synergies Between the Social Economy and Sustainable Development

Abstract

To introduce this special issue we explore the conceptual and practical synergies between the social economy and sustainable development. New empirical evidence is presented on the emergence of these two research fields and the increasing combination of these fields in the literature. Several avenues through which social enterprises can contribute to the transition towards sustainable development are then identified. This is followed by a discussion of how and why the combination can be particularly fruitful both for the social economy and for sustainability transition movements. We also highlight some important challenges facing the social economy with regard to its contribution to sustainable development. Finally we introduce the papers that constitute this special issue and show how they contribute, individually and collectively, to a better understanding of the increasing linkage between the social economy and sustainable development.

Social Enterprise as a Catalyst for Sustainable Local and Regional Development

“…Social enterprise is a typical organization in the social economy [25][26][27][28][29]. Social enterprise has two purposes: meeting the principle of profit maximization and addressing social and environmental purposes, which includes reinvesting in the community [26,[30][31][32].…”

“…In the context of LRD, scholars consider social enterprise a relatively new idea that provides sustainable goods and services [16,28,29,[110][111][112]. Social enterprises provide regions with necessary assets and social infrastructure, such as an understanding of the region or community based on the context of social enterprises [113].…”

Convergences between the Social and Solidarity Economy and Sustainable Development Goals: Case Study in the Basque Country

“…Third, previous studies linking SSE and sustainable development are of course still valid and applicable to the SDGs. In this sense, Hudon and Huybrechts [64] identified a series of elements of the social enterprises and social economy as a whole that contributed to sustainable development: (i) their social mission is aligned with societal challenges at the core of the vision of sustainable development; (ii) their organizational set-up and their democratic and participative governance processes; (iii) their multi-objective and multi-stakeholder structure makes them well equipped to combine the three dimensions of sustainable development; (iv) they help in emphasizing the social dimension of environmental problems, since many of the drivers of these problems are social or political; (v) collective decision-making arrangements could be more successful in maintaining self-governed, common goods organizations; (vi) at a systemic level social economy actors help to raise social conscientization and awareness about sustainable development issues.…”

Integrated Assessment Mechanism of the Sustainable Development Potential of Ukrainian Companies

“…Consideration of this problem in the context of satisfying primarily the long-term interests of society (Hudon & Huybrechts, 2017), which was formed at the global level, urged at the macro level and has become more and more common at the company level in recent decades, is interesting while revealing the direction of development of scientific thought on sustainable development. An example of this is that the development of scholars is being implemented, for example, within the framework of the models of sustainable development management system (Wry & York, 2017;Corde, 2017), and is based on organically combined system and integrated approaches.…”

“…At the same time, the problem of this theory, as well as other ones, for example, the concepts giving priority to the environmental factor (Ürge-Vorsatz, Tirado, Dubash, & Lecocq, 2014) or the economic one (Hudon & Huybrechts, 2017) is either their one-sidedness, the rejection of the importance of other factors and the need for their integrated consideration, or focusing on problemsolving at a certain level, mainly on the global level, and more rarely on the macro level, despite the fact that the economic activity itself is carried out at the company level and its role in the effectiveness of the development of society is extremely important.…”