The Social and Solidarity Economics, Public Policies, and Non-Monetary Economic Practices

The prevailing economic and social model contains great inequalities. Against this backdrop, the Republic of Ecuador, in its constitution of 2008, included recognizing ancestral practices at an economic and social level and granting special protection to “mother earth” or Pachamama based on the common element of solidarity between ecosystems and human beings. Despite this, continuous growth processes have blunted some of the tools and institutions created in Ecuador to redress poverty and rebalance existing economic and regulatory abuses. To analyze this situation, a series of group interviews were carried out in two communities of Loja (Ecuador) to analyze the scope and continuity of current ancestral practices and the effectiveness of processes established in the social economy. The analysis shows the lack of continuity of these practices and their associated benefits for people and communities with limited resources.

Social Dependency: the Values of Collectors, Fishing Logics and the Economics of Gift

The phenomenon of social dependence is considered as a phenomenon that accompanied the life of society at all times. On the basis of analysis of the theoretical resources and empirical studies, a parallelism of dependency strategies is carried out. The evolution of the moral and ethical values of human communities is analyzed through the works of K. Polanya, I. Morris, T. Shanin and others. The convergence of systems of moral and ethical values of prehistoric, non-historical society and modern societies is described. Dependency is considered as fishing, intermediate equipment and gift economics. A unique phenomenon is being studied, which is practically not reflected in the information field, does not find direct accounting in official statistics, however, is well-known in Russian everyday life — «garage-owners». Based on a deep theoretical analysis, it is concluded that the practices of dependency are characterized by a certain form of extremely archaic egalitarianism, and the convergence of the values of collectors and members of post-industrial communities is expressed in fishing, that is, in essence assigning logics to economic practices of our time. The theoretical constructions of the modern topical studies resonate with the empirical studies, both of the garage socio-economic structure and the practices of social dependence. The conceptual approaches discussed in the article have the potential to study various socially negative phenomena of the modern society.

The Impact of the Merchant’s Confession in the Development of Business Law during the Siglo de Oro: the Casuistic Approach of Tomàs de Mercado and Martin de Azpilcueta to Commercial Law.

In 16th century Spain, the confessor and the merchant had a privileged relationship, resulting from the new economic practices induced by the Great Discoveries. The merchant must, for the salvation of his soul, engage in commercial activity in accordance with Christian morality. Through confession, the confessor provides legal and theological advices necessary to achieve this purpose, but also judges the morality of his penitent by deciding whether or not to absolve him. Therefore, the confessor must know both the Christian moral precepts designed to govern business life, and the institutions of civil law used in business practice. An issue raised by the penitent is a case of conscience, which the confessor must resolve by formulating a moral resolution. This resolution could be a certain or only a probable one, and therefore subject to debate against other probable opinions. These resolutions were then incorporated among others into the casuistic literature that was to be diffused throughout Europe for the use of both confessors and penitents.

V. N. Tatishchev: Prolegomena of the Russian modernization research program in the XVIII century (Institutional-evolutionary approach)

Introduction. V. N. Tatishchev, one of the founders of the Russian history studies, was notable for his broad views on the evolution of society and economic order. His economic views were not widely discussed during his lifetime and were not much in demand afterwards. Familiarity with his major works is hampered by the fact that they were almost never published in the form of notes, letters, and manuscripts. The ambiguity of his approaches, conclusions, recommendations and, accordingly, their evaluation was noted by many researchers who took diametrically opposed views. Deep erudition, reliance on Western European philosophy and Russian theology allowed the enlightener to create the conceptual milestones of the future institutional program. Theoretical analysis. Modernization of society should be based on constant changes in existing legislative and economic practices, ideological perceptions, and cultural patterns. This approach allows us to identify the most effective institutions (formal and informal rules), taking into account national specifics. Methodologically, the relationship between changes in public administration and social ethos “vertically and horizontally” is established; the importance of societal economic culture as a factor of sustainable development is emphasized. Empirical analysis. Considered chronologically consecutive works on purely economic topics and legal foundations of power are supported by a significant array of letters to Peter I, the Academy of Sciences, the Berg Collegium, and public figures of the first half of the 18th century. According to the thinker, economic policy, both at micro and macro levels, should be based on regulations, organizational adaptation and rational borrowing. The qualitative description of the structure of social relations of absolutist Russia, in the form of “physiology of society”, which resonates with the modern concepts in economic sociology and new institutional economic theory, is highlighted. Results. V. N. Tatishchev can reasonably be considered the conceptual forerunner of the modern theory of institutionalism. As an enlightener, in the spirit of eighteenth-century social thought, he created an introduction to the importance of permanent changes in Russian economic and social structures. The imperative of state construction of the economy at the macro level is supported by attention to micro-changes in the form of regular economic practices, combining elements of originality and creative borrowing of foreign innovations. Evolutionary approach of the thinker echoes the formation and development of economic views of the XIX and XX centuries, especially in the prerequisites of the theory of history periodization and the transition from one political order to another on the basis of changes in institutions (formal and informal rules).

Keadilan Sosial Feminis: Interupsi terhadap Universalisme, Abstraksi dan Imparsialitas

This paper is a theoretical study of the concept of justice from philosophical theories which tend to exclude feminist perspectives. Since the era of Ancient Greek philosophy, the question of justice has been a core concern of social theory. Justice is a concept at the core of moral and political theory. Furthermore, the understanding of justice is very important because it determines how political, social, and economic practices occur in a society. Accordingly, the discussion of justice must start with concrete problems of injustice. But ironically, injustices due to gender discrimination tend to be omitted from the analyses of mainstream justice theories, even though in a society, sex and gender categories intertwine with one’s status, power, opportunity, and position in their society. This paper emphasizes the principles of interactive universalism to ensure justice is inseparable from the ethics of care. This paper finds that the feminist social justice approach is a proper approach to respond to the current situation.

The Place of Modernity: German Entrepreneurship in Western Siberia in the late 19th – early 20th Centuries

The study focuses on the issues related to the process of adaptation and economic behavior of German entrepreneurship in Western Siberia in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. The construction of the Siberian Railway and migration processes changed the economy, social structure and cultural practices of “old” Siberia. The “yesterday’s outskirts” became a “place of modernity”. The paper aims at presenting economic practices and strategies of German entrepreneurship adaptation in the conditions when the socio-spatial structures of the imperial periphery. were experiencing transformation. On the basis of representative resources, the mechanisms and methods of German entrepreneurs’ adaptation to the local community are shown. The structure of the market space and its segmentation as well as economic niches and economic strategies of German entrepreneurship are defined. The author comes to the conclusion that German entrepreneurs acted in the region as a “market ferment” changing Siberian society, and they could be regarded as actors of socio-economic, cultural modernization of the Siberian space. At the same time, the German merchants themselves experienced external influence from the host society. The research is based on the combination of macroanalytical strategies and microhistorical approach. The concept of “entrepreneurial minority” is a methodological basis for the study presented in the paper. The materials of the paper are addressed to the experts in the field of the history of Siberia as well as to the professional corporation of the researchers interested in the history of ethnic entrepreneurship and in the issues of various ethnic groups’ adaptation to the conditions of a non-ethnic host environment.

Time Banks as Transient Civic Organizations? Exploring the Dynamics of Decline

Time banks have become a popular type of civic organization constructed to facilitate egalitarian economic exchange through a community-bounded currency. Especially after the recent economic crises in Europe, the rise in the number of time banks has been accompanied by relative transience and sometimes short lifespans. We adopt a relational perspective to explore the dynamics of decline in the civic engagement of a time bank in southern Germany. Using methods of longitudinal social network analysis, we analyze the relational processes and individual trajectories of members within the emerging transaction network over a period of eight years. Rather than explaining why, we have found how relational trajectories of members through a structure of core and periphery have led to creeping decline in activity and membership. Given the repeated observation that time banks and other types of alternative economic practices are often characterized by considerable volatility and potential collapse, relational thinking and network analysis are especially suited to unpacking the underlying relational mechanisms that shape these outcomes of volatility and demise.

Roma People, Where to? Tradition and Change in Roma Communities

Roma community in Romania is one of the largest ethnic communities in this country. Romani people integration and reducing disparities between the Roma community and the majority one is a priority for both the Romanian state and the Roma civil society. The integration of the Roma on the labor market is an important step in the integration process. This article proposes qualitative research through the interview method. The research question investigates whether traditional occupations practiced by Roma do not provide Roma access to the labor market today. The general objective of this study aims to identify and analyze qualitatively non-traditional socio-economic practices in the Roma communities in Timișoara and Cluj-Napoca. This objective has been operationalized in several specific objectives related to the identification of traditional economic practices in the occupations of members of the Roma communities in Timisoara and Cluj-Napoca, depending on membership in the subgroup / ethnic group, the identification of non-traditional economic practices in the occupations of members of the Roma communities in Timișoara and Cluj-Napoca, analysis of the role of traditional economic practices in preserving the lifestyle specific to the Roma ethnic group, as essential elements of culture in the communities of Timișoara and Cluj-Napoca. The last two objectives propose the analysis of non-traditional economic practices taken over in the occupations of the members of the Roma communities from Timișoara and Cluj-Napoca following the process of internal and external migration, respectively following the intervention of European funded programs. The participants of this research are 10 Roma people from Cluj-Napoca and 10 Roma people from Timișoara. The research results show that with industrialization, traditional occupations tend to limit their activity and integrated Roma people no longer practice the traditional occupations practiced by their parents or grandparents.

Global destruction networks and hybrid e-waste economies: Practices and embeddedness in Guiyu, China

Recent geographical scholarship on the illicit e-waste geographies and e-waste processing hubs in the Global South has shed light on the global mobilities, production/destruction networks, and political economy/ecology of e-waste. However, their views about the reactivation of value in waste and the dialectics between waste and value rest predominantly on networks of material linkages shaped by broader political-economic structures at macro scales, but are relatively reticent about how mobilities and networks are coordinated by specific places, and how economic practices conducted by a broad diversity of local actors, often informal, constitute economic relations, transactions and dependencies, mediated by place-sticky social and cultural fabrics and vernacular institutions. Based on a study of Guiyu town in Guangdong Province, China, an (in)famous hub of global e-waste recycling, this study unpacks its cluster evolution through a perspective that works with the concept of embeddedness but by way of an emphasis on practice. By tracing a multiplicity of territorial, sociocultural, and political dynamics that articulate between the local and the global, this study enriches existing scholarships on e-waste geographies, global production/destruction networks, and the economic geographies of the illicit.