The Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) in FRANCE
The social and solidarity economy is a local economy contributing to the creation of jobs and local dynamics.
The ESS places at the heart of its project the question of territorialization, added value, and is the bearer of many innovations: recycling and reuse, short circuits, sustainable food, the fight against energy poverty, renewable energies ...
Its diversity is what makes it so rich, but can also make it difficult to grasp: the ESS deploys its activities in areas as varied as home care, financial and insurance activities, social housing, culture and sport, commerce, agriculture ...
The social and solidarity economy (SSE) thus gather a set of structures that have various statuary forms:
- Cooperatives,
- Associations,
- Complimentary health insurance,
- Foundations,
- As well as some commercial companies.
Relying on a strong territorial anchoring (they are first and foremost groups of people), they play a major role in urban and rural areas, in the development of services to the population, the creation of non-relocatable jobs and the contribution to the quality of life in the territories.
An economic model based on a mix of resources
The economic model of SSE companies varies depending on the company and the field of activity: some of the companies are 100% commercial, others rely on non-market or even non-monetary resources., from the public and private sectors. They all share the principle of non-profit or limited profitability.
The majority of SSE organizations, and in particular its main component, the associations, mobilize various resources (sales of products or services, public subsidies for the missions of general interest that they carry out, income from activities, contributions, donations, skill-sharing), not to mention voluntary contributions in kind (valuation of volunteering, loan of premises and equipment).
An economy with a long history in France responding to current challenges
If the social and solidary economy has historical roots (the term « Economie Sociale » and the first workers' associations, cooperatives and mutual aid companies. can be traced back to the first half of the 19th century), its methods and principles of action make it a player capable of facing current challenges.
For instance, it provides responses to changes in employment conditions, relying in particular on cooperation and pooling:
- Cooperatives for the use of agricultural equipment (« Coopératives d'utilisation du matériel agricole » : CUMA) allowing farmers to develop their activity in the post-WW2 period,
- Cooperatives (« coopératives d’activités et d’emplois ») allowing to secure the creation of activities,
- Coworking spaces (tiers-lieux) supporting the development of teleworking and new forms of work,
- Employer groups (« Groupement d’employeurs ») allowing jobs to be shared between several structures
- « Entreprises à but d’emploi » from the french territory experiment « territoire zero chomeurs de longue durée » (zero long-term unemployed) developing new activities in a territory based on the skills of unemployed people with the money they would have perceived forme their jobseekers allowances ...
An economy contributing to the general interest
Through its fields of activity, its ways of doing things and its values, the social and solidary economy thus bring together the mission of general interest and the various competences of communities. The establishment of public policy to support the social and solidary economy makes it possible to promote the development of SSE in the territories.
Focus on the French ESS law
The French SSE law of July 2014 defines the scope of SSE companies in its article 1:
SSE is "a mode of entrepreneurship and economic development adapted to all areas of human activity to which private law legal entities adhere which meet the following cumulative conditions:
1. a goal pursued other than the sole sharing of profits.
2. Democratic governance, defined and organized by the statutes, providing for the information and participation of partners, employees and stakeholders in the achievements of the company.
3. Management in accordance with the following principles:
- The profits are mainly devoted to the objective of maintaining or developing the activities of the company;
- Compulsory reserves established, indivisible, cannot be distributed”.
Article one of Law No. 2014-856 of July 31, 2014 relating to SSE (the so-called Hamon law is inclusive, brought together all SSE families)
Lyon, a territory of social innovation:
Lyon is considered as the historical cradle of the SSE in fact in the 19th century a silk merchant was first a disciple of Saint Simon and began to dream of a new economic order then he was seduced by Charles Fourrier and his utopian socialism Jean Michel Derrion created a social grocery store at the foot of the slopes of the Croix-Rousse in 1835. He founded, in fact, a veritable social commerce, the first experience of solidarity-based commerce known in France, the first stone of a global project of transformation of the economy influenced by associationism and mutualist movements. He sided with the silk workers (the Canuts) by advocating a fair distribution of profits.
The municipality was among the very first to set up a dedicated delegation in 2001, the objective of the city of Lyon is to contribute to the development of SSE in its territory. Taking note of the plurality of the economy, always linked to the different levels of communities (2014-2020 mandate plan). The objective of the city of Lyon is to allow the ESS to scale up and fully contribute to the human and economic development of Lyon.