Social and Solidarity Economy for Sustainable Development: Its Premises - and the Social Economy Basel example of practice

The SSE is a viable strategy in dealing with some contemporary problems known both in industrial and developing countries. SSE is contextualized against the background of recent developments: The liberalization of goods and capital flows world wide, continued industrialization, and the increased global division of labour. Addressed is how local populations could reach certain objectives and satisfy certain needs using techniques characteristic of SSE and, thus, carve out a social and economic space of their own vis-à-vis anonymous markets, global actors, local and national elites. Within this self governed space, it is suggested, a path can be layed for the necessary transition towards local, social and ecological sustainability. The Social Economy Basel www.sozialeoekonomie.org (SEB, founded 1996) will serve as an example to suggest how SSE principles could be operationalized into organizational practice