Postcolonial Theories and the Social and Solidarity Economy

Postcolonial theories have been applied to different fields of knowledge – economics being among the most recent ones. Several works on social and solidarity economy (SSE) has adopted this approach to debate gender asymmetries and other social inequality issues such as the ones focusing on heterogeneity of women in the Global South. There is, however, much to be done in analytical terms, regarding the South that persists in the Global North. This entry aims to: provide an overview of the main ideas regarding postcolonial approach; reflect upon the narrative of development; and analyse how biases in interpretation might forfeit initiatives, programs and policies bridging SSE and goals such as of inclusion, resilience, participation, gender and racial equity, to name but a few. In this sense, postcolonial lenses can contribute to re-igniting the inherent value of community agency, autonomy, and power of choice for the achievement of social, economic and environmental justice.