Solidarity economy and counter-hegemony in the world-system: Insights from Brazil and Portugal

The paper proposes a reflection on solidarity economy as a field of counter-hegemonic projects. It is the result of ongoing PhD research on the positioning of solidarity economy organizations within a global restructuring context. Based on a comparative study (Portugal and Brazil), the goal is to analyze the dynamics that characterize these organizations in articulation with wider changes in the world-system, while questioning their role in the social transformation or reproduction.

In spite of the differences related to each social context, solidarity economy is embodied by a set of organizations where a collective patrimony is privileged against the individual return, and where solidarity is integrated in the core of economic activities as a means to achieve other goals, namely related to citizenship, environment, education, or culture. In the North, solidarity economy mostly emerges in articulation with the Welfare State; while in the South, where historically the State has been more fragile, it is developed from bottom-up approaches, based on the solidarity among different social groups in an attempt to solve their own problems.

One hypothesizes that solidarity economy in Brazil has emerged from a periphery setting, occupying a counter-hegemonic space, in resistance against the dominant political, economic and cultural powers, while in Portugal, in its semi-periphery, it is complementary to such powers. One questions how, on the one hand, the rise of Brazil and its new geo-political-economic centrality and, on the other, the economic recession of Portugal, and the consequent implementation of severe spending cuts, will transform such positions. What is the margin for social and economic criticism within these new dynamics?

The paper presents a theoretical reflection, as well as preliminary evidence from statistical data and document analysis, in the sense of revealing, from a macro viewpoint, the trends under analysis.