The Contribution of the Social Economy to the Sustainable Development Goals

Dear Colleagues,

The contribution of Social Economy entities (both market and nonmarket) to the Sustainable Development Goals has not gone unnoticed by the United Nations or by other International Organizations, such as the International Cooperative Alliance, Social Economy Europe, The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) or CIRIEC International.

The United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Social and Solidarity Economy noted the importance of the Social and Solidarity Economy, indicating that it could play a key role in achieving the 2030 Agenda and the SDG by promoting inclusive and sustainable development through specific social, institutional, and technological innovations and practices. In addition, it pointed out the links between the Social and Solidarity Economy and the 17 SDGs that highlighted its potential as an “alternative development model” to address the structural bases on which exclusionary and unsustainable development is based. The Social Economy is not only able to act through its companies and entities, but the civil society that is involved in these companies and organizations can collaborate to achieve those objectives. An example would be the activity of thousands of volunteers in the thousands of associations spread throughout the world.

The objective of this Special Issue is to highlight the importance of the Social Economy in the 17 SDGs and in the 5 axes of their analysis, namely: people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnerships.

This Special Issue presents different approaches in the analysis of the object of study. We call on all the works that address the analysis of the contribution of the Social Economy to the SDGs from the point of view of the economy, the organization of companies, marketing and market research, accounting and finance, as well as other related areas such as sociology and transversal areas such as digitalization or innovation.

This Special Issue focuses its attention on the following topics but is not limited to them:

• Sustainability of the planet and social economy;
• Role of cooperatives and social and solidarity economy in the ecological transition;
• Circular economy and social economy;
• Sustainable tourism and social economy;
• Sustainable entrepreneurship, social innovation, and social economy;
• Bioeconomy, green economy, and social economy;
• Protection of people, human rights, social exclusion, and social economy;
• Decent work, economic growth, and social economy;
• Responsible production and consumption and social economy;
• Prosperity, economic development, diversification, and social economy;
• Digital revolution, digitalization, and collaborative economy through social economy;
• Building solidarity ecosystems promoting the SDGs: Partnerships and Social Economy;
• Public policies and Social Economy;

The analysis of the contribution of the Social Economy to the SDGs from specific sectors of activity.

Dr. Adoración Mozas Moral
Dr. Enrique Bernal Jurado
Guest Editors

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