The Promotion of the Solidarity Economy by the Barcelona Local Government

The current economic crisis in Europe has accelerated the retrenchment of the state and the deterioration of citizens’ life conditions in Southern European countries. This situation of hardship and austerity favoured the emergence of citizens’ resilience in form of collective action and reciprocity. The solidarity economy values and expressions have grown as collective practices to confront hard economic life conditions; to supply services to community; and articulate a critique to the current economic system. In some cases, these expressions have become alternative actors to the mixed public, private and third sector system of the welfare state in Southern European Countries. Solidarity economy is defined by LaVille (2013; 2015) as those economic practices based on cooperation and reciprocity, that aim to develop a critique and a transformation of the current economic system, emphasizing the centrality of human needs and welfare in economic exchanges rather than economic benefits. Participation of the members in the definition of the project and its development is considered a key aspect of solidarity economy as well. This paper analyzes the bottom-up process in which the Alternative Action Organizations (formal and informal organizations with social and solidarity economy objectives, Kousis M. and Paschou M., 2016) have influenced the policies of the local government in Barcelona, in the form of investment, promotion and political support to those projects based on solidarity economy. The research is based on in-depth interviews of actors involved in Alternative Action Organizations (urban movements, cooperatives, neighbours’ associations, non-profit organizations) in Barcelona carried out in the project frame of “Living with Hard Times: How Citizens React to Economic Crises and Their Social and Political Consequences” (EU FP7 LIVEWHAT) and the analysis of the Barcelona local government policies. The results show that the increase of solidarity economy practices by the AAOs have influenced the growing centrality of this concept in policies developed by the government, especially since 2015. Secondly, the victory of the local elections by a political party, which is formed by people who had been involved in the urban movements of the city, facilitated the sensitivity to these kinds of alternative practices and their promotion. Finally, the shift to these policies has encouraged some traditional associations to start their projects in a solidarity economy. Bibliography Kousis, M. and M. Paschou (2016) “A typology of approaches on Alternative Forms of Critical Collective Resilience in Hard Economic Times” in special issue “Alternative Forms of Resilience Confronting Austerity and the Crisis in Southern Europe: A Social Movement Perspective”, PaCo (under review). Laville, J.L. (2013) The solidarity economy: An international movement, RCCS annual review, 2. Laville, J.L. (2015) Asociarse para el bien común Barcelona: Icaria.