In early December 2011, the Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation (FPH) launched the socioeco.org website. The new site drew on the many years of experience built up by international networks representing the solidarity economy (in particular with ALOE).
The socioeco.org site provides documents on the social and solidarity economy in four languages: French, English, Spanish and Portuguese. The goal is to raise the profile of the alternative economy by gathering together and organising on a single site the information that can be found scattered across hundreds of sites. The texts are mainly discussion documents (and sometimes scientific texts, when they are available online). The site only features texts published from 2000 on, with the exception of documents published earlier whose authors feel they are still relevant in the analysis they provide of the current situation.
Published documents
The documents are mainly analyses and case studies, with over 1,800 texts featured. The idea is to showcase the abundance of literature that exists on the different topics linked to the SSE, and thus to provide food for thought, as well as to provide inspiration for action, with the description of case studies that can be partially or wholly reproduced in other parts of the world. Case studies are geolocalized and can be found easily in the Map section, from community banks in Argentina, solidarity-based tourism in Brazil and women’s cooperatives in India to solidarity-based production chains in Malawi and organic farming in New Zealand, to name just a few.
How information is organized
Information on the SSE is classified by:
10 themes (left-hand column) each with specific sections. Each section is introduced briefly then illustrated by the texts contained in the database. They include analyses, contributions to conferences, articles, proposals, videos, case studies, reader’s reports and charters. Each document is presented in the form of a data sheet with the title, sub-titles, author, summary and the link for downloading the document freely;
keywords (right-hand column).
Information is also classified by:
author (or organization). A brief data sheet lists all the documents produced by the author and present on the site. If your name is on the list of authors and you would like to add a presentation or even a photo, please contact Françoise Wautiez by email: fwautiez@gmail.com;
country.
In addition to documents, the socioeco website also features:
an Initiatives section with the Database of Economic and Solidarity-based Initiatives (BDIS – soon to be replaced by ESSGlobal) you can use to locate the solidarity-based initiatives near you; for example, find out where to buy your organic bread and fair trade coffee or track down a work integration social enterprise for a plumbing job;
a Bibliography section, where you can find books published on the different SSE topics, classified by year;
the SSE encyclopaedia, Solecopedia, which contains definitions of SSE concepts;
information on SSE training courses in the SSE education, information and training theme; with 60 training courses already up and running in France, there is plenty here to inspire young and old alike to put their talents to work in the cause of building a more united world. Training courses are geolocalized, and you can also find them in the Map section.
Partnerships
Various partnerships have been established over the last year. Some of them are logical alliances, such as with Coredem, the confederation of websites for a worldwide democracy, a platform for sharing theories and practices by and for actors of change. Around thirty organizations and networks, including socioeco.org, are already pooling their information and analyses in order to create a body of collective intelligence.
Other partnerships were built on the process of sharing content, for example, with RELIESS, a website dedicated to public policies that promote the solidarity economy. You can access all the RELIESS documents from the socioeco.org site using keywords and, coming soon, special sections. The Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of the Social and Solidarity Economy (RIPESS) will be providing case studies proposed by members of its continental networks via a steering committee.
So as you can see, the site is growing and developing and building up new contacts. Please feel free to send in your own texts, propose documents and training courses and follow all the latest socioeco news on the dedicated twitter feed (socioeco-fr, in English also).
