By Timothée Duverger,
Head of the TerrESS Chair at Sciences Po Bordeaux,
researcher at the Centre Emile Durkheim and Chairman of the Steering Committee of CIRIEC-France
In 1975, at a time when the Club of Rome report had just warned of the limits of growth, the American writer Ernest Callenbach published Ecotopia, an ecological utopia in which he imagined a society governed by the principles of “small is beautiful”. The scene is set twenty years after the secession of three states on the West Coast of the United States, California, Oregon and Washington State. A Time-Post journalist travels there to break with American isolationism and observe the social experiments taking place there. He discovered models based on decentralisation and worker ownership. Most farms, factories and shops had been transformed into cooperatives. Outside investors are banned, and only the national banking system can make loans. The size of enterprises is limited to three hundred workers.
In this utopia, the ecological transition is part of a project for economic democracy, which itself is supported by the social and solidarity economy (SSE). Here we return to one of Karl Polanyi’s strong intuitions, which was that the embedding of the economy into society should involve the decommodification of work and nature. While his theoretical contribution has often been reduced to legitimising state intervention, we should not overlook the role he saw civil society playing in the new regulations. Of course, he was primarily thinking of the trade unions, but he also had a vision of self-managing socialism, for which the SSE provides the framework.
The SSE is at the forefront of the socio-ecological transition, as recognised by the recent adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of a resolution on its contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This text particularly emphasises its role in adapting these goals at local level. In other words, the SSE proposes to embed the economy into the territory.
But to change the socio-economic regime, the SSE must develop its own synergies between production, consumption, distribution, credit and insurance. Only then will it achieve the critical mass needed to enforce a cooperative approach to coordinating the economy. However, this transformation strategy will not work without political intervention. The erosion of capitalism implies linking the meso and macro levels, in other words a coalition between SSE experiments and public action to implement sustainable economic and social development.
Half a century after the Club of Rome’s report calling for the invention of a different development model, the SSE is finally emerging as a credible candidate in the eyes of international institutions. Yesterday’s green utopia could become tomorrow’s reality. Research will be crucial in building the new paradigm we need in this transformative perspective.
This is why we have decided to focus the 10e edition of Ciriec’s international research conference on the social economy on the “role of the SSE in the socio-ecological transition”. We will have the opportunity to discuss statistics, ecological and energy sectors, ecosystems, innovations, financing, education and citizenship, decent work, the fight against poverty, agri-food, the commons and intersectionality. All topics to which the SSE provides answers
This conference will take place in Bordeaux from 27 to 29 October 2025 and will precede the Global SSE Forum which will take place the same week and during which we will assess the first two years of implementation of the United Nations resolution and formulate new proposals. This will be a unique opportunity to cross-reference research and practices so that we can achieve an ecological and social transition. We’re counting on you to get involved!
More information on CIRIEC’s 10th International Congress on Social Economy Research
