This III International Conference follows and provides continuity to the previous conferences held in 2003 and 2005, both with an international scope and with more than two hundred participants. Its approach is related to workers’ current expressions of social and economic solidarity such as associations, cooperatives, social enterprises, comunity enterpreneurship initiatives, and cooperation networks.

Relevant researchers from many countries will contribute to this III Conference with presentations based on their vast experience and explanations of the various theoretical-conceptual and methodological approaches from their most recent and representative research on the topic. Working groups will be organized on Thematic Sessions. They will be chaired mainly by Master and PhD students whose research will be presented and debated. PhDs from the CES-Ecosol Network, linked to the Centro de Estudos Sociais, of the Universidade de Coimbra, are specially invited as well as the members of the EMES PhD Students Research Network.

The program of the event will also include work meetings between international teams and research networks.

Scientific Commitee

Prof. José Luis Coraggio – UNGS (Argentina)
Prof. Luiz Inácio Gaiger – Unisinos (Brazil)
Prof. Pedro Hespanha – CES (Portugal)
Prof. Jean-Louis Laville – CNAM (France)

The thematic sessions will take place during the afternoons of December 9, 10 and 11, 2009. They will consist in presentations of academic works related to ongoing studies and research, grouped by topics according to the following preliminary list of themes:

Associativism and cooperativism
Actors of and topics on social and solidarity economy
General features of the social and solidarity economy
Dynamics and sustainability of solidarity economy organisations
Alternative forms of work organisation
Impact of society transformations on the social and solidarity economy
Public policies in the field of the social and solidarity economy
Cooperation and local development networks
Knowledge and education in the context of social and solidarity economy
Theory and methodology in the area of the social and solidarity economy study