Prefiguring the Re-Politicisation of the Market: Solidarity Economy and Transformative Politics in Barcelona

This paper examines the solidarity economy as a site of market re-politicisation in Southern Europe, focusing on its political and transformative dimensions in the context of neoliberal restructuring. Drawing on a qualitative study conducted in Barcelona, the article engages with social movement studies to analyse how solidarity economy organisations emerge not merely as compensatory responses to market failure, but as collective projects that explicitly challenge neoliberal rationalities. The study investigates two main dimensions: first, the factors enabling the upsurge of solidarity economy organisations in a context shaped by austerity, urban inequality, and civic mobilisation; second, how the political orientations and activist trajectories of social movement participants influence the ways in which the solidarity economy is conceived and enacted in practice. Rather than adapting uncritically to existing market and policy frameworks, many of the initiatives analysed articulate alternative economic imaginaries grounded in reciprocity, democratic self-management, and collective autonomy. The findings identify three interrelated dimensions through which the political character of the solidarity economy becomes visible: (i) the redefinition of economic activity as a civic and political practice; (ii) the contestation of entrepreneurial and market-oriented logics dominant in social enterprise discourses; and (iii) the use of organisational practices as forms of prefigurative politics. In this sense, the solidarity economy emerges as a space of experimentation where economic cooperation operates as a vehicle for democratic renewal and social transformation, contributing to broader processes of re-politicising the market in Southern European contexts.