Solidarity economy – a theoretical framework for analyzing bottom-up local development initiatives in CEE

The context for social enterprise is considered to be characteristic in Central and Eastern Europoe (CEE). Here during state socialism civil society was oppressed (Harkai 2006), cooperatives were set up in a top-down logic and... [ view full abstract ]

The context for social enterprise is considered to be characteristic in Central and Eastern Europoe (CEE). Here during state socialism civil society was oppressed (Harkai 2006), cooperatives were set up in a top-down logic and were state-owned lacking a participative nature (Galera 2009). In the same time family and informal economic strategies played an important role in satisfying local needs (Szalai 2002). For example Family members, friends or neighbours formed economic self-help groups, so called kalákas in Hungary, where they worked for eachother on a reciprocal basis. On the other hand post-socialist transformations resulted in rising regional inequalities and the peripheralization of most rural areas.

Peripheralization (Kühn 2014) manifests differently in the CEE context and particularly within the two case study countries of this paper, Hungary and (Eastern) Germany. In addition to selective outmigration, infrastructural shrinking, which characterizes middle-sized cities or rural areas dominantly in Eastern Germany, people (often of Roma ethnic origin) get socially and spatially marginalized in small settlements in Northeast or Southwest Hungary. The different levels and aspects of socio-political peripheralization result in different levels of dependencies (political and personal). In these differently peripheralized rural areas agency is not necessarily powerless though. There are not-for-profit bottom-up initiatives, we can also call them social and solidarity economy (SSE) initiatives or social enterprises, that aim to shape the futures of peripheralized rural areas.

There is a tendency within these bottom-up initiatives towards a multi-dimensional approach of local development, which goes beyond economic growth and includes social, environmental and political aspects next to the economic. Following this line, local development can be normatively understood as a socio-economic and political transformation towards more sustainable societies. To outline a holistic, community-centered and transformative local development I have turned to the solidarity economy literature (Coraggio et al. 2015, Laville 2014). Solidarity economy provides a theoretical lense, through which light can be shed on the economic, social and political dimensions of bottom-up initiatives of peripheralized areas. After Karl Polanyi, Jean-Louis Laville or Julie Graham and Katherine Gibson I am applying a substantive/ diverse economic approach to my analysis in which light can be shed on the informal economic practices of the initiatives as well.

Looking at two particular CEE countries (Eastern) Germany and Hungary, I am interested in how bottom-up initiatives of peripheralized rural areas may contribute to a community-centered local development (or local development in a solidarity economy perspective). On an empirical level I am interested what aims and strategies do these bottom-up initiatives develop in differently peripheralized, post state socialist contexts. Three Hungarian and two (East) German case study social enterprises/bottom-up initiatives have been selected and are being analyzed through a critical realist ethnographic approach (Porter 2001). Semi-structured interviews with actors of the bottom-up initiatives, participant observation and document analysis are the main methods within this research.

The consideration of the different manifestations of peripheralization, the legacy of state socialism and post-socialist transformation, an extended awareness of the economy (Polanyi 1971), as well as the social (solidarity approach) and political dimensions enable me to better understand how bottom-up initiatives oppose, reproduce or resist processes of peripheralization and how they may contribute to a community-centred local development.

References

Coraggio, José; Eynaud, Philippe; Ferrarini, Adrianne; Filho, Genauto Carvalho de Franca; Gaiger, Luis Inácio; Hillenkamp, Isabelle et al. (2015): The theory of social enterprise and pluralism: solidarity-type social enterprise. In: Jean-Louis Laville, Dennis R. Young und Philippe Eynaud (Eds.): Civil society, the third sector and social enterprise. Governance and democracy. London, New York, NY: Routledge (Routledge frontiers of political economy, 200), p. 234–249.

Harkai, Nóra (2006): Közösség és közösségi munka. Budapest: VEL Kft.

Galera, Giulia (2009): The ‘Re-Emergence’ of Social Enterprises in CEE and the CIS. In: Marco Musella und Sergio Destefanis (Hg.): Paid and Unpaid Labour in the Social Economy: An International Perspective. Heidelberg: Physica-Verlag HD, 245–262.

Kühn, Manfred (2014): Peripheralization. Theoretical Concepts Explaining Socio-Spatial Inequalities. In European Planning Studies 23 (2), pp. 367–378. DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2013.862518.

Laville, Jean-Louis (2014): The social and solidarity economy: A theoretical and plural framework. In: Jacques Defourny, Lars Hulgård und Victor A. Pestoff (Eds.): Social Enterprise and the Third Sector. Changing European Landscapes in a Comparative Perspective. London: Routledge, p. 102–114.

Polanyi, Karl (1971): The economy as instituted process. In: Karl Polanyi und Arensberg, Conrad M., Pearson, Harry W. (Eds.): Trade and market in the early empires: economies in history and theory. 1st Gateway ed. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, p. 243–270.

Porter, Sam (2001): Critical Realist Ethnography: The case of racism and professionalism in a medical setting. In: Alan Bryman (Hg.): Ethnography. Volume 1. 1. publ. London: Sage, p. 239–257.

Szalai, Júlia (2002): A társadalmi kirekesztődés egyes kérdései az ezredforduló Magyarországán. (Alapkérdések). In Szociológiai szemle - Sociological Bulletin 4, 208–209, checked on 7/15/2016.