Social Economy and New Jobs: A Summary of Twenty Case Studies in European Regions

Employment in the new social economy is growing. In times of rising unemployment new cooperatives and associations are recruiting some of the unemployed. That is the main conclusion in the study on twenty organizations scattered all over Europe presented in this article. The organizations are located in different economic and legal environments, but united in that they are comparatively small, locally based and run in a democratic way. The article also introduces the field `new social economy' and presents three hypotheses to give a theoretical framework for the results in the study. Finally implications for policy and research are presented.