Economía social y solidaria y crisis ecosocial: la intercooperación como herramienta para avanzar en las transiciones

In the current context of eco-social crisis, the capitalist system seems incapable of dealing with problems that it itself has generated. Therefore, the social and solidarity economy (SSE) can play an important role, by proposing to organize the economy under alternative social relations of production, distribution, consumption and financing, based on justice, cooperation, reciprocity and mutual aid, aimed at democratizing the economy. This article studies the contributions of the SSE to eco-social transitions and, more specifically, to what extent the inter-cooperation mechanisms carried out in SSE networks contribute to these transitions. To this end, we conducted both a literature review and qualitative work based on interviews with 21 SSE organizations (SSEOs) in the Basque Country. The article shows how these inter-cooperative tools reinforce the transformative character of SSEOs, as well as their organizational strengthening and, therefore, can contribute to eco-social transitions.