The Re-Politicisation of the Market in Southern Europe, Part I: The Solidarity Economy

Abstract

Across Southern Europe, the intertwined crises of austerity, inequality, and ecological degradation have prompted a profound rethinking of how economies and democracies are organised. In this context, cooperatives, social enterprises and other social and solidarity economy organisations have re-emerged as key actors in constructing collective responses to systemic failure. However, their resurgence is far from uniform. While some initiatives have adapted to market and policy frameworks to ensure survival, others articulate more radical, post-capitalist programmes grounded in reciprocity, sharing, and democratic self-management. This panel aims to explore these contrasting trajectories: on the one hand, the institutionalisation and domestication of the cooperative ideal; on the other, its reinvention as a vehicle for transformative politics. Drawing on studies of political consumerism and solidarity economies, it will analyse how established and emerging cooperatives negotiate the tension between market pragmatism and social transformation. From community-supported agriculture and ethical finance to housing cooperatives and mutual aid networks, these initiatives reveal diverse strategies for reclaiming the economy as a political and civic domain. By creating a space for dialogue on the multiple pathways through which actors in Southern Europe are re-politicising the market, this panel seeks to capture the region’s critical experimentation with cooperation, where citizens oscillate between adaptation and rupture, crafting transformative economic forms that blur the boundaries between enterprise, democracy, and collective emancipation. We invite contributions that (a) map the diversity of cooperative and solidarity-based developments across Southern European contexts; (b) analyse how national institutional arrangements, cultural legacies, and social movements shape their trajectories; and (c) assess the extent to which these experiences foster, or risk undermining, democratic renewal and social justice.

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