Public Policies and Their View of Social and Solidary Economy in Argentina

Social and solidary economy has become internationally relevant throughout the past few decades due to its potential to contribute to the creation of employment, social inclusion and community development. Its ability to achieve these aims, however, is conditioned by the view the national state holds of social and solidary economy and the role assigned to it by public policies in their strategy against unemployment and social exclusion. Within this framework, this paper presents research outcomes on national public policies that include references to social and solidary economy, current in Argentina between 2003 and 2013. he research hypothesis poses that the analyzed public policies have an instrumental understanding of social and solidary economy, to the extent that it is incorporated due to its circumstantial contribution to jobs and income creation for excluded population. he inquiry's results corroborate this hypothesis and show how this approach limits the efficacy of public policies' ability to structurally impact socioeconomic conditions of the recipients on the one hand and, on the other, the ability of social and solidary economy to drive sociopolitical change processes.