Institutional Context and the Evolution of Social and Solidarity Economy Models across Developed and Emerging Economies
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Abstract
This paper examines the diversity of social and solidarity economy (SSE) models across developed and emerging economies by focusing on their conceptual foundations, organizational forms, governance structures, financing mechanisms, institutional environments, and development functions. The literature shows that SSE should not be understood as a uniform organizational category but as a heterogeneous field encompassing cooperatives, associations, mutuals, social enterprises, work-integration organizations, community initiatives, and market-oriented hybrids. In developed economies, SSE configurations are strongly influenced by welfare-state traditions, established nonprofit sectors, public-service arrangements, cooperative institutions, social-investment infrastructures, and increasingly diversified hybrid business models. In emerging economies, organizational development is more frequently shaped by institutional gaps, informality, community structures, development priorities, resource constraints, and processes of institutional construction. The comparison further indicates that distinctions between developed and emerging economies cannot be reduced to differences in organizational maturity. National trajectories, territorial conditions, governance arrangements, financing systems, and relationships among public authorities, markets, communities, and civil society determine the forms through which social value is created. The paper concludes that comparative analysis should recognize institutional plurality and assess SSE models according to their capacity to combine economic sustainability, participatory governance, social inclusion, and territorially embedded development.
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