Solidarity Co-operatives: Am Embedded Historical Communitarian Pluralist Approach to Social Enterprise Development?

Ridley-Duff, Rory and Bull, Mike (2018) Solidarity Co-operatives: Am Embedded Historical Communitarian Pluralist Approach to Social Enterprise Development? In: RMIT Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Colloquium 2014, 26 November 2014 - 28 November 2014, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

In this paper, we explore antecedents of the FairShares Model of social enterprise to answer the question “how has the concept of a ‘solidarity co-operative’ developed in the UK?” Our research on the antecedents of the FairShares Model uncovers a history of attempts to integrate entrepreneurs, producers, service users and investors using multi-stakeholder approaches to social enterprise. We argue that this (hidden) history is rooted in a growing acceptance of communitarian pluralist principles in the social and solidarity economy, but remains marginalised in the UK due to a powerful US discourse on social entrepreneurship. The FairShares Model represents a fresh attempt to advance communitarian pluralism in social economy through advocacy of ‘multi-stakeholder co-operation in member-owned social enterprises’.