On Social Economy Concept

We often find in the specialized works the claim that Social Economy, as we understand it today, has three main conceptual sources, namely: the works published in the XIX th century by economists like Dunoyer, Mill, Walras; the vision of certain theoreticians and practitioners such as Owen and Fourier and the cooperatives established in Europe about two centuries ago such as the Rochdale Pioneers. But there are fundamental differences between the XIXth century's acceptation with regards to the term and current definitions. The constancy which links all these concerns is the affiliation of the debates in the Social Economics field, a branch of economics that investigates the relationship between the economy and the society. At the same time, we can not deny the connections and similarities between the cooperatives and mutual associations of two centuries ago and of today. But, back in time, the concept of social economy, both theoretically and practically, was not limited to these types of organizations. The conclusion of the study is that today we can talk about a Neo Social Economy which gives up to utopian visions but is limited to the activity of a particular type of organization called Social Enterprises.