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Accepted Paper:
Inclusive Innovation for Global Development: the Role of Social Solidarity Economy (SSE) Ecosystems
Theodoros Papaioannou
(The Open University)
Les Levidow
(Open University)
Zuhre Aksoy
(Bogazici University)
This paper is focused on agri-food organisations in the Social Solidarity Economy (SSE). It examines how they responded to the Covid-19 crisis, drawing on the cases of Brazil and Turkey.
Paper long abstract:
This paper examines agri-food organisations in the Social Solidarity Economy (SSE), especially how they responded to the Covid-19 crisis. For a long time, beforehand, they developed short supply chains for their agroecological products, bringing producers socially closer to consumers, while avoiding profit-driven middlemen. Such arrangements have been guided by social values of economic equity and democratic self-management. These organisations – including cooperatives or social enterprises, their networks, and supportive institutions – together comprise solidaristic ecosystems. By critically reviewing the literature, and then comparing Brazil with Turkey, the paper shows how agri-food SSE ecosystems have mobilised inclusive innovation through agile adaptations and resilient processes, thus fulfilling the urgent needs of members and their communities in rapidly changing socio-economic environments. They have extended such dynamic capabilities and infrastructures for creative, socially equitable means to recover from the Covid-19 crisis, thus enabling members and their families to maintain their livelihoods. Alongside collective capacities embedded in prior routines, solidaristic relationships enable both agile adaptations and a transformative resilience that bounces forwards.