An Ecological Economics Inquiry into the Social and Solidarity Economy - Insights from an Action Research

The research aims to link the social and solidarity economy (SSE) with the critical ecological discourse. The practice- and movement-based theory of SSE promotes a systemic change, social transformation toward an environmentally and socially just future through resisting and building alternatives to the prevailing economic system, the market economy. The research gap which has been identify during literature review reveals that, from a radical ecological perspective the SSE practices have been poorly explored. To fill this research gap, based on the interdisciplinary approach of ecologic economics, I critically review ‘How the ecological aspects can theoretically and practically be included in the SSE?’ – which is the research question of the research. The conceptual framework of the research is based on the radical sustainability approach following the pre-analytical vision of ecological economics which builds on the strong hierarchy between the economic, social and natural domain. The implications of the radical sustainability on SSE initiatives was explored through the operation of the Cargonomia collective, in Hungary, Budapest during an action research. Action research allows to explore social phenomena through democratic knowledge creation, participation and intervention into lives of communities, organizations or individuals. During the presented action research, five members of the Cargonomia collective engaged themselves between 2016 and 2018 to deepen understanding about the operation of the organization while improve its performance and conceptualize the lived experience through theoretical-analytical concepts which contributes to scientific knowledge creation. The empirical results of the action research reveal how ecological aspects can be included in the SSE theoretically and practically, which are the following: 1. Respecting certain environmental principles SSE initiatives can follow certain environmental principles to comply with the radical sustainability approach. Such environmental aspects ...