Solidarity and Social Business: Theoretical Background

If the problems that we are facing today are often caused by the failure of the market mechanism, in which individuals are separated from each other, the problems may be solved by reconnecting people, which means solidarity among people, whether they call it solidarity or not. There are many types of activities for this purpose from local groups such as microcredit in developing countries to fair trade at the global level. The ways to connect people can be classified into two: One is the face-to-face relationship and the other is the labels that convey the information of the other party. In either case, the information takes important roles to achieve better conditions. This point was emphasized by Amartya Sen in his book (The Idea of Justice. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 2009). Solidarity has an intrinsic value for human life because it will improve our health and happiness. But it has a more important role for justice. As Sen argued, we need more information about our life in order to make our life better. The capability approach is a way to widen our informational base to various aspects of our life. Another point is that we do not assume human beings are selfish. We are human beings who care for other people suffering from poverty. However, we cannot neglect the market mechanism. In order to make the solidarity economy sustainable, we need business methods. And the social business is one of the solutions, various types of which are shown in this book.