The social and solidarity economy sector: A bottom-up alternative?

This chapter mainly focusses on solidarity economy as a growing movement of initiatives combining elements of autonomy, equality, and democracy, summarizing current academic conceptual work, evidence, and debates on the potential of democratizing economy and society from the bottom up, particularly through reciprocity and democratic participation. The aim is to address the question of whether solidarity economy holds the potential to constitute a bottom-up alternative to market domination over democratic participation and social inclusion that can reintegrate economic activity in a sphere of democratic redistribution and reciprocity for the common interest.