Resumen de From the Popular Economy to the Third-Sector. Origins andbuoyancy forces of the Solidarity Economy in Latin America
The paper aims to bring an overview of the Solidarity Economy in Latin-America, both in an historical and theoretical perspective. The diversity of experiences and their different purposes will be highlighted in order to clarify the sense of the very first approaches and concepts regarding these new expressions of the popular economy, since the late 80’. The solidarity-based undertakings integrate economic and social dimensions, due to their socio-cultural foundations, and also to their specific rationality, in which efficiency and welfare, productivity and participation are inextricably linked. As the Solidarity Economy adopts another logic and responses to emancipatory aspirations, it leads to an alternative model, contrasting from the conventional patterns in terms of understanding and fulfilling the needs of the popular economy, and demonstrates the inadequacy of the usual visions aimed at Informality or Informal economy. In this context, some civil organizations belonging to the so-called Third-Sector, a very problematic concept in Latin-America, play an important role in the thrust of the solidarity grassroots initiatives, supporting them as actors of an equitable and sustainable development and of an effective political citizenship.
