CIRIEC International Research
Conference on Social Economy

In a global environment characterized by uncertainty and systemic fragility, it is essential to analyze how SSE organizations are addressing global and local challenges such as inclusion, gender equity, care, sustainability of life, and intergenerational integration through their management practices and governance models.

In this context, it is important and relevant to promote an academic debate on the incorporation of a situated gender and intersectional approach, in line with frameworks of diversity, equity, and inclusion that recognizes the heterogeneity of realities in rural and urban settings, within which the strategic processes of SSE organizations take place. 

These approaches, in turn, make it possible to examine, among other issues, systemic inequalities, demographic transition (an aging population), and the challenges of intergenerational connection with children and youth, as well as the recognition and redistribution of care work within the SSE, in line with debates on the care economy and the sustainability of life. 

Furthermore, these approaches enable the integration of feminist perspectives, the analysis of women’s role in the SSE , and the strengthening of their empowerment, along with that of other groups facing historical participation gaps, such as young people. Finally, they promote the development of gender-sensitive measurement systems and indicators designed to assess the transformative impact of SSE organizational models, as well as their contribution to accountability, decision-making, and the formulation of evidencebased public policies.

In line with the above, this thematic area seeks to contribute to the development of strategic guidance and action frameworks that are
consistent with the principles of the SSE and with contemporary challenges related to social justice, sustainability, and economic democracy, thereby strengthening the SSE’s capacity to influence transformation at the local and global levels.

Subthemes:

1. Inclusive and democratic governance in the SSE, with a focus on gender, equity, and intersectionality
2. SSE organizations are characterized by principles of participation and economic democracy. However, in practice, they face tensions related to the concentration of power, low levels of effective participation, and barriers to access in decisionmaking. In this context, the incorporation of a gender and intersectional approach into management remains uneven and, in many cases, in its early stages.
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4. This subtopic invites participants to explore innovative models of governance, as well as tools, methodologies, and experiences that enable the integration of these approaches into organizational planning, management, and evaluation, while recognizing the multiple forms of inequality, particularly gender and age inequality, that shape the internal and external dynamics of the social and solidarity economy (SSE). It also seeks to strengthen the meaningful inclusion of diverse stakeholders, particularly women and young people, in strategic processes and decision-making.
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6. The care economy and the sustainability of life in SSE organizations
7. SSE has significant potential to raise awareness of, redistribute, and revalue care work. However, it still faces challenges in incorporating these principles into its management models. This subtopic invites reflection on organizational practices that integrate the care economy, shared responsibility, and the sustainability of life as central pillars of collective action within the SSE.
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9. Organizational transformations in response to demographic and generational changes
10. Changes in the population structure (aging) and the emergence of new generations pose significant challenges for the SSE. This subtheme seeks to analyze how organizations are adapting their management models to respond to these dynamics, promoting the intergenerational integration of children and youth, in line with the identity and principles of the SSE.

This research track focuses on integrating SSE into contemporary statistical and evaluation systems. A key area of discussion will be the visibility of the SSE within traditional micro and macroeconomic frameworks, as well as methodological innovations that enable the development of more appropriate and functional measurement and evaluation tools. Additionally, it addresses the need to design tools that overcome the fragmentation of social indicators and promote international comparability within the framework of socalled social balance sheets, while exploring the challenges of linking these metrics to the global sustainable development agenda.

In summary, this thematic track invites submissions that offer reflections and experiences regarding data as the dominant language for decision-making. Specific topics for discussion will include: the underreporting of the social sector in national accounts; information, measurement, and valuation systems, including the methodological and technopolitical challenges associated with statistics and satellite accounts; the fragmentation and low comparability of social balance sheets; and the progress and challenges in measuring and evaluating the impact of the social sector, including its contribution to the SDGs.

Subthemes:

1. Measuring and evaluating the impact of SSE and the SDGs
2. The SSE is structurally underreported in national accounts due to limitations in traditional statistical classifications, which do not adequately capture its nonprofit logic, democratic governance, or non-market production. This leads to an underestimation of its contribution to GDP, employment, and other well-being indicators, affecting public decision-making and the design of tailored policies.
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4. On the other hand, progress is evident in aligning the SSE with the United Nations agenda, particularly the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, the main challenges lie in measuring actual impact, establishing causal attribution, and ensuring the availability of comparable data, all of which are directly related to the structural limitations of information systems.
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6. With this in mind, this subtopic seeks to identify methodological approaches to impact measurement and evaluation that integrate multidimensional indicators and territorial approaches from around the world, with the aim of improving the assessment of the SSE and its contribution to the SDGs.
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8. SSE information systems and statistics
9. Strengthening information, measurement, and statistical systems for the social and solidarity economy (SSE) involves both technical and political challenges. From a methodological perspective, it is necessary to adapt frameworks such as the System of National Accounts and to develop specific classifications and measurement tools capable of reflecting the organizational diversity and impact of the social and solidarity economy. From a technopolitical perspective, inter-institutional coordination, political will, and collaboration among stakeholders (the government, academia, and the social and solidarity sector) are key to legitimizing and sustaining these measurement systems.
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11. Social accounting methodologies
12. Social Balance Sheets in the SSE exhibit significant methodological heterogeneity, with multiple approaches (qualitative, quantitative, and narrative indicators) and no globally shared standards. This limits comparability across organizations, regions, and countries, reducing their usefulness for aggregate analysis and policy evaluation. There is therefore interest here in learning about experiences that can help move toward more harmonized frameworks on a global scale.

Digital transformation is redefining management, governance, and value creation models in SSE organizations, requiring new technological and strategic capabilities to respond to highly dynamic environments.

In this context, intrapreneurship is emerging as a key driver for fostering change from within organizations, promoting innovative initiatives aligned with their social mission and economic sustainability. Innovation, both technological and social, enables SSE entities to strengthen their “coopetitiveness,” enhance their local impact, and optimize their internal processes without losing their people-centered focus. Furthermore, intrapreneurship fosters strategic adaptation, the creation of new services, and revenue diversification, elements essential for organizational resilience in contexts of global uncertainty.

Thus, the integration of digital transformation, innovation, and intrapreneurship is particularly relevant in the SSE, where the principles of participation, cooperation, and solidarity can enhance the co-creation and inclusive technology adoption. However, questions remain regarding how these factors specifically interact within social enterprises and what their measurable impact is on economic, environmental, and social
performance.

Therefore, this research focus is justified by the need to generate evidence that contributes to the international academic debate and offers strategic guidance to strengthen the sustainability and impact of social and solidarity economy organizations in the digital age.

Subthemes:

1. Digital transformation in SSE: Opportunities, gaps, and challenges
2. Digital transformation represents both an opportunity and a challenge for the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE). While it enables improved efficiency, expanded reach, and greater transparency, it can also exacerbate inequalities related to access, technological capabilities, and infrastructure. This subtopic invites an analysis of strategies for inclusive digital adoption, models of technological governance, and experiences that align technology with principles of solidarity.
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4. Entrepreneurship, social and technological innovation in SSE
5. Intrapreneurship is positioned as a key tool for promoting innovation from within organizations, fostering creativity, autonomy, and the generation of new initiatives aligned with the social mission. In this sense, the SSE has historically been a space for social innovation; however, integration with technological innovations raises new possibilities and tensions.
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7. This subtopic seeks to explore organizational conditions, leadership styles, and cultures that foster the development of intrapreneurial capabilities within the SSE, as well as to analyze hybrid experiences that combine technology and social innovation to generate local impact. It also invites an examination of the risks of misalignment with SSE principles in these processes.
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9. Transformation and internationalization strategies
10. This sub-line of research focuses on models of economic sustainability for the SSE in contexts of uncertainty and financial constraints. Within this framework, researchers are invited to analyze the tensions associated with access to financing, the limited availability of resources, and competition among actors for those resources, all of which can influence organizational adaptation processes and the incorporation of market logic. Furthermore, the growth and internationalization of SSE entities is both a reality and a necessity in a globalized context, but it also raises tensions related to democratic governance, citizen participation, and the preservation of identity.
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12. Furthermore, the aim is to examine the role of sustainable finance in the SSE, including ethical, solidarity-based, and impact-oriented financing mechanisms, as well as strategies related to revenue diversification, scalability, and resilience. Contributors are invited to explore the tensions between economic sustainability and the principles of the SSE, as well as the challenges of coordinating financial instruments.

The SSE faces an inherent structural tension between its identity as a transformative political project—grounded in the principles of solidarity,
equity, peace, and economic democracy—and pressures from the institutional environment that drive organizational isomorphism toward business models centered on profit maximization and the entrenchment of an imperial way of life.

This dynamic distorts the principles of solidarity by prioritizing demands for efficiency, competitiveness, and scalability, which dilutes the SSE’s
emancipatory potential and often reduces it to a complementary, and in many cases, residual, productive economic sector serving conventional
economic models.

In this context, transformational public policies emerge as a unifying force to overcome these tensions and strengthen the SSE as a driver of structural social change, territorial cohesion, and peacebuilding on a global scale. Beyond regulatory advances, a critical assessment is needed in the formulation and evaluation of policies that influence SSE processes, recognizing public policy ecosystems that integrate territory, active
citizenship, and inter-institutional partnerships. Likewise, it is necessary to analyze frameworks that strengthen the identity of solidarity, mitigate
isomorphism, and foster partnerships with the public and private sectors for inclusive and sustainable development.

It is at this point that transformative public policies must not only identify and address institutional vulnerabilities, but also foster ecosystems that
preserve the political dimension of the social and solidarity economy, combining economic efficiency with values of solidarity and ethics oriented toward collective well-being and the reproduction of social progress. These dynamics can contribute to the transition toward more equitable and democratic economic models, especially in contexts marked by profound territorial and social inequalities, as is the case in various regions of Latin America and Africa.

Thus, this thematic track seeks to critically analyze the SSE as a global political-transformative project, examining the tensions it faces in the face
of hegemonic market logics and organizational isomorphism. It also seeks to identify and evaluate how transformative public policies can strengthen the SSE’s identity as a force for solidarity, democracy, and emancipation, by reconciling economic efficiency with social justice, democratic strengthening, and peacebuilding. Furthermore, participants are invited to reflect on emerging analytical approaches to understanding the contemporary dynamics of the SSE and its relationships with processes of social, economic, and territorial transformation in contexts of global systemic crises.

Subthemes:

1. SSE as a political project: economic democracy, social justice, and transformation
2. Beyond its economic dimension, the SSE constitutes a political project that promotes alternative forms of social organization based on economic democracy, equity, and solidarity. This subtheme seeks to delve deeper into the theoretical frameworks, conceptual foundations, and experiences that position the SSE as a key actor in the transformation of dominant economic systems toward more just and sustainable models.
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4. Public policies, multi-stakeholder coordination, and institutional tensions in the SSE
5. The SSE faces a structural tension between its political-transformative mission and institutional pressures that push it toward conventional business models. In this context, public policies aimed at the SSE tend to oscillate between instrumental approaches, which view it as a complementary productive sector, and transformative approaches that recognize its structural potential.
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7. Strengthening the SSE requires public policy ecosystems that integrate diverse actors: the government, SSE organizations (including public service cooperatives), the private sector, academia, and the public. This subtheme calls for an analysis of the design, implementation, and evaluation of public policies that strengthen the SSE without diluting its identity, as well as their effects in different national and regional contexts. It also invites exploration of experiences in multi-stakeholder coordination, collaborative governance, and the development of public agendas that enhance the regional and global impact of the SSE, particularly in strategic sectors and public services.
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9. Similarly, the theme seeks to analyze how organizational, normative, coercive, and mimetic isomorphism impact the identity, practices, and meanings of SSE, as well as the strategies that enable it to resist or reconfigure these dynamics without losing its emancipatory essence.
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11. SSE, territorialities, peace, and global inequalities
12. The SSE operates in profoundly unequal contexts, especially in regions such as Latin America and Africa, where solidarity-based practices coexist with adverse structural conditions. This subtheme seeks to analyze how public policies can recognize territorial specificities, strengthen local capacities, and promote inclusive development models that respond to diverse realities.

The approach incorporates a perspective that values ancestral knowledge as a source of territorial knowledge and resilience, particularly in rural and indigenous contexts, where traditional cooperative practices strengthen food sovereignty and processes of social and territorial cohesion through synergies between agroecology, sustainable bioeconomy, and short supply chains, thereby avoiding forms of green extractivism,
despite uneven results depending on the territorial context.Likewise, the recovery of traditional knowledge and history as elements for debate, learning, and dialogue with the present, capable of guiding the transformations of tomorrow, represents a fundamental task for strengthening the social and solidarity economy and its contribution to the development of our communities.

Much of the social innovation in SSE is driven by cooperative projects that promote transformative economies in local communities. These projects are characterized by the cocreation of inclusive public policies and the measurement of indicators from a social perspective, bearing in mind that budget compliance cannot, and should not, be the only factor to consider.

These experiences document the impact of SSE on territorial equity, highlighting the role of cooperation as a mechanism for collective empowerment, bridging gaps, cultural preservation, and peacebuilding in local communities. Thus, this thematic area emphasizes how transformative economies, rooted in local knowledge and cooperative dynamics, contribute to processes of sustainable development and social justice, aligning with CIRIEC’s objectives to foster territorial development through SSE processes and participatory inclusion.

Subthemes:

1. Ancestral knowledge, history, and territorial knowledge.
2. Local and ancestral knowledge constitutes a key source of knowledge for territorial sustainability and resilience. This subtheme invites exploration of how this knowledge, especially in rural and Indigenous communities, interacts with the SSE to strengthen alternative development models while preserving cultural identities and community practices.
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4. Food sovereignty, agroecology, and the bioeconomy
5. ESS practices contribute significantly to food sovereignty through approaches such as agroecology, sustainable bioeconomy, and short
   marketing circuits (new distribution chains that sell directly to the end consumer). This subtheme seeks to analyze these experiences, their
   impacts, and the tensions involved.
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7. Socio-environmental transitions and territorial justice
8. This subtheme examines the challenges associated with the climate crisis, socio-environmental transitions, and peacebuilding processes, with an emphasis on their territorial implications and the structural inequalities that affect communities and organizations in the SSE. We invite analyses of phenomena such as green extractivism, a new form of resource appropriation carried out under the guise of sustainability that reproduces territorial and cultural inequalities. Thus, this subtheme proposes to analyze phenomena of growth that leads to impoverishment, where economic development does not translate into well-being, social cohesion, or sustainable conditions for peacebuilding in the territories. It also examines the structural problems associated with access to and control of land, along with the legal constraints faced by SSE organizations in obtaining formal status and legal recognition.

This theme brings together innovative research, emerging approaches, and new scientific debates on the social economy that do not specifically fit into the conference’s other thematic areas.

6.1. Emerging approaches and new scientific debates on the social economy that are not specifically addressed in the conference’s other thematic areas.

1. We invite submissions of theoretical, empirical, or methodological papers that analyze recent transformations, new organizational
   models, evolving conceptual frameworks, and social, economic, technological, or environmental challenges. Of particular interest will
   be interdisciplinary contributions, comparative studies, novel methodologies, and research exploring areas that are still underdeveloped. The goal is to provide an open forum for identifying trends, expanding the frontiers of knowledge, and promoting new research agendas in the social economy.