Social Investment and the causes of energy poverty: are cooperatives a solution?

2019 ◽  
pp. 179-194
Author(s):  
Michael Willoughby ◽  
José Millet-Roig ◽  
José Pedro García-Sabater ◽  
Aida Saez-Mas
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Social Economy ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
State Funding ◽  
Energy Prices ◽  
Energy Poverty ◽  
The Social ◽  
Reliable Source ◽  
The Face

This chapter is about a successful energy co-operative in Spain. With rising poverty and energy prices among the most expensive in Europe and, the cooperative not only provides a reliable source of clean energy to consumers, but also forms a central part of the community in which it is situated. The case study points to a need for private enterprises to collaborate with local authorities and social services to provide solutions to drastic situations of poverty that are still prevalent, particularly in areas of Southern and Eastern Europe. The Spanish energy cooperative demonstrates one way in which the social economy can help to shape the future of the welfare state in the absence of state funding and in the face of national policies that are not well aligned.

scholarly journals Anchoring the social economy at the metropolitan scale: Findings from the Liverpool City Region

Urban Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 004209802097265
Author(s):  
Matthew Thompson ◽  
Alan Southern ◽  
Helen Heap
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Social Economy ◽  
Future Research ◽  
City Region ◽  
Anchor Institutions ◽  
Urban Economic Development ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Economies ◽  
The City

This article revisits debates on the contribution of the social economy to urban economic development, specifically focusing on the scale of the city region. It presents a novel tripartite definition – empirical, essentialist, holistic – as a useful frame for future research into urban social economies. Findings from an in-depth case study of the scale, scope and value of the Liverpool City Region’s social economy are presented through this framing. This research suggests that the social economy has the potential to build a workable alternative to neoliberal economic development if given sufficient tailored institutional support and if seen as a holistic integrated city-regional system, with anchor institutions and community anchor organisations playing key roles.

WALTER MORRELL AND THE NEW DRAPERIES PROJECT, c. 1603–1631

2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 651-675 ◽  
Author(s):  
MICHAEL ZELL
Keyword(s):  
Privy Council ◽  
Rural Industry ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Sources ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Stuart England ◽  
Rural Unemployment ◽  
Economic Thinking

This article explores the lengthy and convoluted history of a Jacobean project to set the idle poor to work making ‘new draperies’. Although the projector, Walter Morrell, convinced the Cecils, King James, and the privy council of the social and fiscal benefits of his scheme, he failed to persuade the Hertfordshire gentry. This case study in the formulation of crown economic policy, and in ‘Stuart paternalism’, draws upon Morrell's own detailed, unpublished treatise, as well as conventional political sources, and shows how the combination of ‘commonwealth’ rhetoric and progressive economic thinking could sway crown policy-making. It also demonstrates once again the limits of conciliar authority in early Stuart England. In the face of sustained provincial non-compliance, the privy council had neither the machinery nor the stomach to force the Hertfordshire elite to implement government policy and give meaningful support to a government-backed projector. And despite their inability to deal with growing rural unemployment, the Hertfordshire magistrates were unwilling to experiment with rural industry as a solution.

scholarly journals Social Economy and Living Standards: Consumer Cooperatives in Barcelona, 1891–1935

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Medina-Albaladejo ◽  
Josep Pujol-Andreu
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Social Economy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Consumer Cooperatives

Abstract The living standards of the working classes during industrialization continue to be the subject of debate in European historiography. However, other factors closely related to the institutional setting, such as the role played by social economy and the institutions for collective action, are seldom considered. This study focuses on these factors, and attempts to quantify the social impact of consumer cooperatives. We argue that these institutions substantially improved the lot of the working classes from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, helping them to increase their incomes, and access food and services, such as education and social services, which the state did not provide in sufficient measure. To demonstrate this point, we analyse thirty-five consumer cooperatives in Barcelona, an industrial centre in which these organizations were more popular than anywhere else in Spain. Our main conclusion is that consumer cooperatives increased the well-being of their members, helping them to meet their substantial calorific needs, although their diets were unbalanced and low-cost; members improved their income between five and ten per cent, by simply shopping at the institution, and gained access to basic welfare services.

scholarly journals The politics of platform power in surveillance capitalism: A comparative case study of ride-hailing platforms in China and the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 205943642110467
Author(s):  
Ngai Keung Chan ◽  
Chi Kwok
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Face ◽  
Behavioral Predictions

This article uses a comparative case study of two ride-hailing platforms—DiDi Chuxing in China and Uber in the United States—to explore the comparative politics of platform power in surveillance capitalism. Surveillance capitalism is an emerging economic system that translates human experiences into surveillance assets for behavioral predictions and modifications. Through this comparative study, we demonstrate how DiDi and Uber articulate their operational legitimacy for advancing their corporate interests and visions of datafication in the face of legal uncertainty. Although DiDi and Uber are both “sectoral platforms” in urban mobility with similar visions of datafication and infrastructuralization, we highlight that they deploy different discursive legitimation strategies. Our study shows that Uber adopts a “confrontational” strategy, while DiDi employs a “collaborative” strategy when they need to legitimize their data and business practices to the public and regulatory authorities. This study offers a comparative lens to examine the social and political dynamics of platform firms based in China and the United States and, therefore, contributes to understanding the various aspirational logic of platform thinking in different political contexts.

A case study of unquiet translators

Target ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Monzó-Nebot
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Work Processes ◽  
Gray Area ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Shed Light ◽  
Made In

Abstract Remarkable efforts have been made in Translation and Interpreting Studies to test the subservient habitus hypothesis formulated by Simeoni (1998) in his seminal work. In the face of increasing evidence that translators tend to reproduce a given society’s or community’s prevalent norms and contribute to the stability of such norms (Toury 1978), subversive translation practices have been reported (Delabastita 2011; Woods 2012) and indeed promoted as a way of fostering social and cultural change (Levine 1991; Venuti 1992). However, insights into how translators’ subservient or subversive habitus develop and depart from each other are still lacking. In order to shed light on this gray area, this article scrutinizes the contrasts between the habitus of professional legal translators who acquiesce to and who reject the norms governing their positions in the field. Special attention is given to those who decide to abandon the translation field. Their behavior is examined by relating habitus to forms of socialization and studying the implications of their strategies. Based on a case study drawn from interview data, this article focuses on the social practices of resistance and rebellion vis-à-vis subservience, and the impact of both on translation workplaces, work processes, and translators’ futures.

Social Entrepreneurship in Sheltered Employment Centers

2016 ◽  
pp. 431-452
Author(s):  
Vera Gelashvili ◽  
Eva Aguilar ◽  
María-Jesús Segovia-Vargas ◽  
Maria-Del-Mar Camacho-Miñano ◽  
María Teresa Blanco Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Social Economy ◽  
Capital Social ◽  
Great Contribution ◽  
Case Study Methodology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Employment Centers ◽  
Key Variables ◽  
Study Methodology

Sheltered Employment Centers (CEE) are part of the social economy companies, based on the primacy of people over capital, social benefits and solidarity. Its aim is to carry out productive work and they are a means of integration of the greatest possible number of disabled people. There is a growing interest in this type of business, because its number has increased considerably. The objective of this chapter is to give academic visibility to CEE due to its great contribution to the social corporate responsibility, and to encourage the so-called social entrepreneurship. The reasons for creating social firms are analyzed and the characteristics that can contribute to the success of this type of companies are studied. Using the case study methodology, a CEE is analyzed in depth showing the main features of social economy business by means of a specific case and the key variables that has conducted to its success.

The Potential Role of Social Reporting in the Decision-Making Process of Cooperatives

2019 ◽  
pp. 115-131
Author(s):  
Fabio De Matteis ◽  
Daniela Preite
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Single Case ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Social Economy ◽  
Social Reporting ◽  
Social Report ◽  
The Social ◽  
Decision Making Processes

Accountability in the social economy sector is very important because it is inherent in the nature of the organizations of this sector. The literature on the topic of social accounting and accountability is abundant and highlights the benefits and the criticisms of social reporting. The objective of the chapter arises from the literature review that highlights how more in-depth studies are needed on the characters and role of social accountability in decision-making processes. In order to answer the research question (How is social reporting performed and how does social information influence the decision making of the management in a cooperative?), the single case study methodology has been adopted, considering embedded units of analysis and focusing on the social report of an Italian retail cooperative (COOP Lombardia). Thanks to the analyzed case study, it is possible to conclude that the social report can represent a tool of accountability that also informs future decisions, realizing a circular relationship between results achieved and decisions to be taken.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document