Glossary

While especially in francophone countries the term “Economie Sociale et Solidaire” is equated to the social economy (and sometimes to social business), mainly in its institutional recognition, RIPESS uses Social Solidarity Economy to join the two approaches as a political, social and institutional movement including different economic approaches from organisations seeking social value and repairing Market economy damages, to initiatives seeking a more radical socio-economic change. It includes non-profit organisations, for-benefit enterprises and informal economic initiatives, by their explicit economic, social and environmental objectives as well as various forms of collaborative, associative and solidarity relations.

SSE Organisations act according to the following criteria:

1. Economic activity
2. Social/societal objective (including social, cultural, ecological objectives) 
3. Citizens’ initiative and participative structure
4. For social profit (not for private gain)

Solidarity economy gathers transformative citizen-led initiatives understanding economy as a space of social relationships based on solidarity, human and Earth rights, self-determination, mutuality and cooperation. Solidarity initiatives are seeking to democratise economy and participate strengthening social, economic, and environmental justice. SE is not a sector of the economy, but a transversal approach that includes initiatives in all sectors, sharing a broad set of values contrasting with the dominant Market economy, such as cooperation vs competition, mutual support and solidarity vs individualism, horizontal organisation and democratic decision making. vs hierarchy and centralized structures It is an attempt towards solidarity-based practices of production, exchange and consumption that generate livelihoods while implementing democratic principles and fundamental rights for common well-being.

Supply and distribution chains consist of all the steps taken to source, produce, transform, distribute and manage residues of goods or services. In SSE, they tend towards a circular economy, reducing energy and waste consumption as much as possible. They can also include the financing, research and development, transport and logistics, promotion and communication activities needed throughout the production and supply process. According to SSE values and principles, the solidarity reorganization of these chains relies on trust relationships and reciprocal guarantees between the different actors involved (producers, artisans, service furnishers, consumers, etc.) and it increases shared benefits as social inclusion, wealth redistribution, equality, transparency, democratic involvement, healthy environment and many other positive impacts for all the communities involved. The open and cooperative nature of the supply and distribution chains encourages the creation and support of new initiatives and enterprises when the natural growth limits of one or more actors in the chain are reached.

Inter-cooperation – cooperation between SSE initiatives – is an instrument aimed at strengthening existing companies and organisations, creating other new ones and conceiving new projects. It can be done in different ways: carrying out joint business activities, creating second-tier cooperatives and cooperative groups, through socio-political, sectorial and territorial non-profit organisations, etc. In turn, the public authorities must promote responsible public procurement so that companies working with them as providers and suppliers are outstanding in terms of their social and environmental responsibility.

SSE networks are sets of economic, social and political interlinked initiatives that include many different actors or groups of actors (called nodes) who play different roles, bringing different resources and needs. The organizational or legal form of the entities is not considered as important as the perspective and the values pursued, adopting "approaches from local to global that support freedom, reciprocity, solidarity and egalitarian exchange" (cit. RIPESS EU). These networks are built at different scale: they can be local (e.g. XES Catalunya or RES Marche), national (e.g. REAS) or international (e.g. RIPESS), as well as sectoral (e.g. food or energy) and inter-sectoral (e.g. URGENCI – CSA network) and their flexible structure allows them to develop different practices and enterprises (e.g. worker- and consumer-owned cooperatives, associations, rural farmers' unions, fair trade networks, local/social currencies, bartering market, etc.)

There are three dimensions of sustainability: economic, social, and environmental in SSE and in CSR and triple bottom line. In SSE, the objective of economic sustainability cannot be separated from those of social and environmental sustainability. The objective of the SSE is to promote people and the economy is an instrument to improve the quality of their lives. It is not the people who are tools for an economy that has as its priority the profit of a few. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) includes initiatives of companies that - while pursuing profit-making - decide to explicitly present a series of internal and external instances, providing economic, social and environmental benefits for all stakeholders; triple bottom line (TBL) is an accounting framework with three parts: social, environmental (or ecological) and financial. Many organizations have adopted the TBL framework to evaluate their performance in a broader perspective to create greater business value. 3P: in SSE we are flipping the priorities of the TPL from profit-planet-people to people-planet-benefit.

Banks and banking cooperatives with a shared mission to use finance to deliver sustainable economic, social and environmental development.

Values in SSE are referring to an ethical horizon in beliefs and behaviours developed and discussed by stakeholders, in each organisation. The definition of those values are usually informed and referenced to a set of national and international texts and conventions expressing Human rights, social justice and peace principles, as well as shared human progress perspective: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966), International Labour Organisation Founding Declaration (known as the Declaration of Philadelphia concerning the aims and purposes of the ILO, 1944), etc.. Those values are interpreted and transposed in practices through organisational principles and statutory statements, rules and regulations, for instance: participative decision making, dignity and equality guarantees (social protection, the right to choose one’s occupation and built a chosen career, to evolve in it, to have actual access to long life professional training, etc.); empowerment processes (“popular education”, professional training, genders equality guarantees, etc.). As a matter of example, at a network level, RIPESS Europe members gathered in its charter values such as: Humanism, Democracy, Solidarity, Inclusiveness, Subsidiarity, Diversity, Creativity, Sustainable development, Equality, Equity and justice for all, respecting the integration of countries and people, A plural and solidarity-based economy. (Source: CHARTER OF RIPESS, approved by the Board of Directors of RIPESS in Montevideo, October 20, 2008.).

"Worker self-management (WSM) is the idea that those who produce should control their workplaces. It is based upon the premise that hierarchical forms of MANAGEMENT and organization are unnecessary, undesirable, and can be replaced by DEMOCRATIC forms of decision making.” Extract from The Dictionary of Alternatives, Utopianism and Organization, Martin Parker, Valérie Fournier, and Patrick Reedy, Zed Books, USA, 2007.