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Paper short abstract:

The Social Solidarity Economy is a Latin American academic concept which has become policy in Ecuador. After reaching relatively superficial conclusions in previous research, I propose that the concept of 'translation' will offer better insight into how academic concepts affect actions of the state.

Paper long abstract:

The Social Solidarity Economy (SSE) is an approach to economics that examines actors and organisations that have motivations aside from profit, generally those with social and environmental objectives and a sense of solidarity and cooperation. Despite distant roots in 17th century France, the SSE is part of the Latin American intellectual tradition, having come to prominence there in recent decades. In 2009, the Ecuadorian government established the Instituto Nacional de Economía Popular y Solidaria (IEPS) in order to strengthen the SSE.

In 2015, for my minor thesis, did one month's research in Ecuador with the IEPS, examining the potential for the SSE to be used as a tool for development. Unsurprisingly, some of the conclusions I reached were relatively superficial: the participants in IEPS-led programs had slightly different conceptions of the SSE to IEPS staff. For my doctorate, I propose to use the concept of 'translation' to investigate the significance of these different understandings.

Translation should allow me to investigate why the participants in the program have different conceptions of the SSE and what they mean, both for the enactment of policy and how academic concepts transform as they move between contexts. This paper will be presented after having returned from six weeks pre-fieldwork, but before my year of fieldwork in 2018. It will lay out my proposed theoretical framework for analysing the influence of academic ideas on government policy.