Une innovation sociale en économie solidaire : le cas Solidarauto

Although essential for social inclusion, the means and ability to be mobile in his moving are unevenly distributed (Eric Le Breton, 2005). From this awareness, various initiatives on mobility aids, including solidarity garages, also called "associative partnership" garage are developed. One of them, Solidarauto, began his project in Trélazé, a small city which is settled near Angers, Maine et Loire in 2010. In this article, based on a case study, the authors try to discuss the innovative nature of this initiative. While the commercial sector through the garages, and the public sector through the public transport network, are involved in the field of mobility, can we consider really the creation of this integral garage as a social innovation? Mobilizing theory site (Zaoual, 2008), we will check if the proximity, both social and geographic, talks that Solidarauto with local actors, it can be identified as a located social innovation (Zaoual, 2008), that means a kind of social innovation whose development is closely associated with its territorial and social environment, and that establishes a kind of "bridge" between the individual and the environment, both socio-economic and territorial (Glemain, 2004).