Recognition of the social economy in Europe

Abstract

Social economy points out the activities in which the gained resources are directed towards achieving a social goal and to the community’s help in which they are implemented. Following public interest objectives determine the principles of organization. It is shown that, therefore, social economical structures which are different than profit organizations from at least four reasons: fundamental objective, the presence of the allocating principles based on solidarity and mutuality, participating management and taking part into the organization’s decisional process, the plurality of the resources. The concept of social economy is obvious in the expansion from European Union. The degree of recognizing the concept by the public authorities, by social economical companies and by the academic/science world shows a variety of approaches from the EU-25 countries and allows the identification of three groups of states. Recognizing the social added value of social economy reflect in different domains with a high level of scientific, social, political consent , mainly referring to social cohesion , occupying labor force, generating and maintaining social and economical structures, developing democracy , social innovation and local development.