Social economy: Community action towards social integration and the prevention of unemployment and poverty

In these times, when unemployment, marginalization and poverty are spreading while world capitalism takes its course, new approaches for guaranteeing subsistence at the community level need to be explored. Social economy provides people with an alternative which is work-intensive, equitable, and integrative. It is based on the principles of grass-roots democracy and can be facilitated through community-based social work. First, this paper outlines how social economy can be constituted and developed. Secondly, it describes successful community-based business enterprises and federations of social co-operatives in Switzerland, Germany and Italy. These profiles provide evidence that community workers can and must help to create, reinstate, and redesign social, political, and economic bonds within the community.