Social Alternatives in Southern Europe and Latin America

This book deals with the evolution of initiatives connected to the social and solidarity economy and their political cultures and educational implications in the south of Europe and in Latin America.

Employing a comparative perspective, the contributors present 11 studies of these trajectories in Argentina, Chile, Portugal, France, Italy, Spain, and Catalonia in order to engender familiarity with social tributary practices and projects in the Latin world. As the cyclical crises of capitalism and their resulting inequalities have created proposals of reform and brought them into action, certain shared ideological influences and policies have emerged across these societies. Faced with the interpretative schemes used for the Anglo-Saxon sphere, which have been the usual reference in international research, this volume’s geographical and cultural matrix of analysis helps fill a longstanding gap in this field.

The book will be of interest to scholars, educators, and students specialising in the history and political science of the social and solidarity economy sectors, as well as professionals involved in cooperatives, mutual aid societies, and associations.

Table of contents

Introduction

Montserrat Duch-Plana and Josep M. Pons-Altés

1. Comparative Notes on the History of the Social and Solidarity Economy in Latin Europe

Jordi Estivill

2. The Old and New Uses of Communal Lands: How to Escape Commodification?

Pedro Hespanha

3. Mutuality and Cooperation in the Transition to Modernity (Portugal, 1834–1934)

Joana Dias Pereira

4. From Associationism to the Solidarity Economy: A Historical Perspective

Jean-Louis Laville

5. Hybridisation, Social Innovation and Commoning: The Experience of the Italian Cooperative Enterprises at the Turn of the Millennium

Patrizia Battilani

6. Mutualism in Chile, 1848–1990: Social Security, Sociopolitical Movement, and Space of Sociability in the Working Class

Fernando Venegas Espinoza

7. From Cooperation to Workers’ Control: “Defending Sources of Employment” in Argentina

Mirta Zaida Lobato

8. Mutual Benefit Societies in Spain from the Ancien Régime to 1936: Three Decades of Studies

Santiago Castillo

9. Associationism, Mutualism, and Cooperativism in Catalonia, 1868–1938

Montserrat Duch-Plana and Ramon Arnabat-Mata

10. Origins and Diversity of Cooperative Practices Between Pupils in France: Towards a Didactics of Cooperation

Sylvain Connac

11. Cooperation Between Pupils, a Comparative View: Spain, France and Italy

Albert Irigoyen, Josep M. Pons-Altés, and Carole Gauthié