Role of social and solidarity economy in localizing the sustainable development goals

ABSTRACT

Over the last several years, social and solidarity economy (SSE) has received increasing attention from policymakers, researchers and practitioners worldwide for its potential in addressing today’s major challenges – including poverty, unemployment, inequality, social exclusion and climate change. As an integrated, people-centred, and planet sensitive approach, SSE aims to generate values for the local communities and people based on the principles of equity, inclusion, cooperation, solidarity and democracy. Its activities are primarily focused on meeting the needs of communities and creating an inclusive and sustainable society where socially vulnerable groups are also empowered. The Korean government established various supportive legal frameworks and policies for SSE in the past decade, and as a result, and a large range of SSE organizations and enterprises (SEOEs) has rapidly appeared in the country. While there is growing consensus that SEOEs in South Korea are potentially well-positioned to address the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is less clear how well it is doing in practice. This study uses the existing data and analysis to put together an assessment of the economic, social and environmental impacts of SSE in South Korea, and relates these impacts to the SDGs. Specifically, this study looks at SEOEs in urban agriculture and circular economy sectors to examine their role in building sustainable and innovative business and helping the country adapt to climate change. This study presents a number of evidence that SSE can be a key means of the achievement of SDGs, particularly 1, 2, 3, 8, 11, 12 and 13.

KEYWORDS:

• Social and solidarity economy
• sustainable development
• circular economy and urban agriculture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. ‘Social Enterprise (SE)’ in Korean is used as an umbrella term akin to the English word ‘Social and Solidarity Economy.’ There are various types of organizations in the SE sector: social enterprises, rehabilitation enterprises, cooperatives, and community enterprises.