Social and solidarity economy: Educational experiences based on cooperation and their contradictions

Abstract

The main theme of this study focuses on educational processes inherent to experiences of social and solidarity economy. The reflection emerges from the hypothesis that the social and solidarity economy constitutes, in the cooperation among individuals and collectives, privileged spaces of education. The processes of education and cooperation and social and solidarity economy, however, are not free from contradictions. In order to understand what we purpose, we first present the social situation from which the social and solidarity economy is derived. Later some experiences are described resulting from joint efforts made by collectors of recyclable materials. Based concrete experiences it was possible to reflect on the relationship between education and cooperation so that, at the end, we were able to approach the theme more critically, noticing limits, problems, possibilities, potentialities, contradictions and questionings. Methodologically the educational and work experiences of the researchers are important and represent the basis of participant observation. From this study we can say that individuals and collectives, when participating in solidarity- collective experiences, experience education through praxis, that is, the participants re-educate themselves in the role of protagonists, making the social and solidarity economy transcend the immediate borders.

Keywords: social economy, solidarity economy, education, cooperation, recyclable materials collectors.