Economia popular e economia social solidária: do precário ao plural

Abstract

At the end of the twentieth century, the Latin American debate on the popular economy was based on a diagnosis of the heterogeneity of forms of production and work in these countries. In the present century, the debate is related to the ideas of social economy and plural economy, which allows a direct connection to the discussion in the central countries. This article presents this trajectory, starting from the work of Milton Santos on the circuits in the urban economics in the underdeveloped countries and their relation to the popular economy. We also discuss the solidarity economy, which originated within the framework of European associativism, and in Brazil assumes peculiar contours when focusing on self-managed collective production. Finally, we discuss how the current Latin American debate articulates the questioning of the market society and the proposition of an "other economy" focused on work and on the plurality of economic principles. In this sense, “social and solidarity economy” would be, in peripheral and in central countries, a set of initiatives oriented to an ideal economic system, to replace the "economy of capital".