ANALYSIS OF THE PROSPECT OF THE SOCIAL ECONOMY IN LATIN AMERICA, A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Abstract

International organizations and government institutions are increasingly interested in obtaining the support of social movements and SSE organizations for new public policies and laws that encourage their commitment and participation from below, and facilitate their access to new schemes of policies. This article addresses another concern arising from this provision of international development policy regarding social movements, namely the process of translating SSE practices into state policies. The translation here refers to the processes, mechanisms and dynamics through which the State incorporates into politics the cooperative and supportive spirit of the SSE practiced by social movements. The problem that arises is that the state tends to embed the SSE in the logic of power instead of allowing the transformative aspects of the SSE to flourish. Drawing on the example of three well-known Latin American movements: the Zapatista Movement in Mexico, the Unemployed Workers Movement in Argentina, and the Landless Rural Workers Movement in Brazil, the paper examines the tension underpinning the practices of the SSE and the state, and how the former can be subordinated to the logic of the state with significant implications for emancipatory politics and practice