AdvancementS in Social Economy through Technological Solutions

ongoing

The Social Economy (SE) sector constitutes over 10% of all EU enterprises, sustaining around 13.6 million job positions. Despite its significant role, Social Economy Organizations (SEOs) face substantial policy and legal challenges, including funding shortfalls and difficulties in scaling, underscoring the need for thorough investigation. While often acknowledged as innovative contributors to social inclusion, some criticize them for allegedly advancing a neoliberal agenda. Controversies persist, primarily due to challenges in measuring the social impact of SEOs and discerning their outcomes compared to mainstream social inclusion providers. To delve into this discussion, there is a pressing need to enhance evaluation tools for measuring the impact of SE on social inclusion. Although various approaches exist, they are primarily linked to improved accountability and external evaluation guidelines, commonly overlooking local needs and specificities. Concurrently, transnational reports indicate that SE employees, on average, receive lower compensation, experience more precarious jobs, and face informal working conditions. Therefore, there is an urgent need to broaden the scope of social impact assessment beyond service beneficiaries, incorporating the impact on SE employees. In this context, technological advancements hold the potential to support SE progression, with platform cooperatives emerging as influential contributors committed to citizen involvement and improving members' working conditions through collaborative governance. Against these backdrops, ASSETS employs a four-step strategy to explore SE's impact on social inclusion, quality job provision, and sustainability: conducting research and case studies spanning regions both within and outside the European Union, improving evaluation tools through local integration and technological advancements, and creating a digital collaborative platform to engage stakeholders and enhance working conditions within SE.