This paper summarize about fifteen years of empirical research on various spatial levels on the impact of social capital on economic growth. At the lowest level, the firm level, the results are unambiguous: there is strong evidence on the impact of social capital on firms’ performance. However, when the unit of research is moved from single actors to spatial units with a large number of anonymous actors, the results become less clear.

We can observe in recent years an ever-increasing development of Third sector, with a significant support from the public in relation to the benefits it brings to society in terms of welfare. Non-profit Organizations, and particularly the non-profit enterprises such as the Italian social cooperatives, have in common the aim to unite social needs and economic needs. If we observe the crisis in terms of social co-operatives, the “crisis” is not a new phenomenon.

2nd International CIRIEC Research Conference on the Social Economy, October 1-2, 2009 Östersund, Sweden The Social Economy in a world facing a global crisis.

Public finance, social added value and accountability.

Abstract:

This study ensues on the new research project “Specifics of the social enterprise financing and of the social and public added value measurement”, which is financed by the Czech Science Foundation (CSF) for 2009 – 2010.

Cultural policy is usually integrated in social economy using three ways: by institution, (for example association, co-operative, local authorities) (Monzon & Raves 2008), by target (low income people, young people, immigrants…) or by object (performance, exhibition…). Each of them is useful to define stakes and objectives in a local cultural strategy and to highlight the social components of cultural activities. However this definition of relationships between social economy and culture is unable to consider local cultural potential as a factor of social development.

This paper analyses governance and network problems of organizations in social economy for providing personal social services confronting multi-stakeholder problems among social economy, for-profit enterprises and local governments.

The paper tries to analyze the following research question: “How does the formation of social capital among activists of community-based cooperatives effect local development?”

Given tight budget constraints and a backlog in infrastructure investments, small municipalities are seeking new forms of providing public services (e.g. eldercare) which build on civic participation. In contrast to outsourcing these services in the form of Public-Private-Partnerships, cooperative Public-Citizen-Partnerships support civic democracy on a local level.

This research is a part of doctoral thesis and it aims to draw the sociological profile of Portuguese Consumers’ Cooperatives managers.

As in Sweden in general, the municipality owns a large share of the rental multi-family housing stock through its’ housing companies. At present tenants are offered the possibility to buy the houses or the real estate units, from the municipal housing companies, in the form of tenant-owners associations. This extensive process of conversion of tenure will have major influence on the Stockholm housing market, also in respects such as the relationships between residents and between residents and the society’s institutions.

Last years a big number of organizations are adopting in their approaches and strategies “principles of Social Responsibility” (Waddock, 2004). It supposes the accomplishment of actions that allow to reach a triple “economic, social and environmental” result, which is known like “triple bottom line perspective” (Elkington, 1999). These actions will benefit a set of agents of interest, the so called stakeholders (owner, clients, creditors, public administrations, society), … with the organization interacts.

The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between social capital and cooperation in Italy. There are currently few pioneering studies but much remains to be done to identify the causal relationship between this two phenomena. The ancient meaning of co-operation is simply that “unity is strength”, but unlike other instruments of integration, such as the consortia, the real cooperative firm provides an added value to the socio-economic context in which it is based.