Participation, Governance, Collective Action, Democracy and the Social and Solidarity Economy

This entry shows how the social and solidarity economy (SSE) fosters participation, collective action, and democratic governance, inside and outside SSE organizations. In addition, it reveals that for these democratic processes to work effectively, SSE organizations should have a mode of operation that is not restricted to utilitarian rationality, does not restrict its economic regulation to market principles, and does not confine its political action to the domain of formal politics, i.e. a constitutional system of government and publicly defined institutions and procedures. Furthermore, it describes how SSE’s forms of participatory management and deliberative citizenship allow organizations to meet objectives while consolidating the relationships and primary sociability ties between individuals and/or groups. Finally, it exposes the risks and challenges of democratic management in SSE organizations, and also shows other terminologies to evoke the meaning of participatory democracy in SSE.