BUILDING BLOCKS FOR THE SOLIDARITY ECONOMY

The objective of this exercise was to support CSRSME Asia’s advocacy to promote and build a solidarity economy through 1) the transformation of individuals and organizations and 2) raising general awareness that capitalism (and its focus on profit-making and competition) is not the only economic system. Through these cases, CSRSME Asia started the documentation of practices and opportunities for the promotion of the solidarity economy.

It was hoped that the case studies would contribute significantly to making individuals and organizations see and appreciate that there are economic systems that place emphasis on human needs, relationships, cooperation, equality, diversity and self-determination – micro-economies that choose to serve the needs of people and ecological sustainability rather than the maximization of profits and the rule of the market. These micro-economies collectively are what will eventually be called the solidarity economy.