Scaling Up

When citizens take collaborative action to meet the needs of theircommunity, they are participating in the social economy. Co-operatives,community-based social services, local non-profit organizations, andcharitable foundations are all examples of social economies thatemphasize mutual benefit rather than the accumulation of profit. Whilesuch groups often participate in market-based activities to achievetheir goals, they also pose an alternative to the capitalist marketeconomy. Contributors to Scaling Up investigated innovative socialeconomies in British Columbia and Alberta and discovered that achievinga social good through collective, grassroots enterprise resulted in asustainable way of satisfying human needs that was also, by extension,environmentally responsible. As these case studies illustrate,organizations that are capable of harnessing the power of a socialeconomy generally demonstrate a commitment to three outcomes: greatersocial justice, financial self-sufficiency, and environmentalsustainability. Within the matrix of these three allied principles lienew strategic directions for the politics of sustainability.

Whether they were examining attainable and affordable housinginitiatives, co-operative approaches to the provision of socialservices, local credit unions, farmers’ markets, orcommunity-owned power companies, the contributors found socialeconomies providing solutions based on reciprocity and an understandingof how parts function within the whole—an understanding that isessential to sustainability. In these locally defined and controlled,democratically operated organizations we see possibilities for a morehuman economy that is capable of transforming the very social andtechnical systems that make our current way of life unsustainable.