Robin Murray examines the role of the emerging social economy in responding to the economic crisis.

Key messages:

• In the early years of the 21st century, a new kind of social economy is emerging. It has profound implications for the future of public services as well as for daily life.
• This economy is already helping to address some of the most intractable problems facing modern societies, but lacks adequate capital, methods and skills.
• To meet today’s economic challenges, we need a programme of more profound structural change, of a radical transformation of infrastructures and institutions.
• Social innovation will have a central place in this transformation. Support is needed in seed funding this innovation.

An emerging economy can be seen in many fields, including the environment, care, education, welfare, food and energy. It combines some old elements and many new ones. In this paper, Robin Murray describes it as a 'social economy' because it melds features which are very different from economies based on the production and consumption of commodities.

Author:

Robin Murray