A economia ou é solidária ou é fratricida

Abstract

This text reflects on the notion of the solidarity economy from the ground up. I begin by considering two public-benefit NGOs (ANDC and Life and Peace Community), whose action and economy cross paths with four micro-entrepreneurs and their units, all differing greatly one from the other: two small businesses are run by women and two others by men, one of whom is an immigrant. Then, inductively, a more in-depth reflection is put forward based on two aspects: both the solidarities observed in the familial and socio-political contexts of the micro-entrepreneurs and the economies of their units and the NGOs which supported them. I conclude that solidarity is a plural notion (altruistic, familialist, associational and statal) and that the economy is either “political economy,” as was the case when it emerged, or an ideological notion which denies life and people in loco and in terra mundi. That is to say, the economy is either solidary or fratricidal.

Keywords

• micro-entrepreneurship
• microcredit
• solidarity
• solidarity economy
• Portugal