The social and solidarity economy in Argentina and the UK: convergence from opposite directions

This chapter explores the commonalities and differences in the history of the development of the social and solidarity economy in the UK and Argentina. It examines how the need for social security and welfare, unmet by political agency, was resolved through mutual organisation in both societies. It contrasts the absorption of welfare provision into the state in the UK with experiences in Argentina where it became part of an independent social and solidarity economy (SSE) with significant legislative underpinning and political support, particularly from the Peronist Party. In the final stage of comparison, the unpicking of the welfare state in the UK has led to an increased need for voluntary welfare provision, now branded as the Big Society. Moreover, in Argentina also an attempt to encourage co-operative entrepreneurism took place. As well as providing an account of the social function of the SSE, the chapter explores how the need to make a rapid transition to sustainability works alongside the need for social justice to suggest a reciprocal relationship between the development of the SSE in these two societies in the global North and South. (Less)