ABSTRACT
The chapter focuses on the different types of economic activity, maintaining the focus on rural and small town settings. Activities at the interface of social and hidden economy with the formal system usually involve cash transactions for which the main criterion is not profit maximisation. In the Republic of Ireland, provision of a nationwide public road transport network is the duty of a state-sponsored body, Bus Éireann. The dissociation from the established institutions of both market and state is even more pronounced in the case of community development co-operatives (CDCs). These are a form of social economy peculiar to the West of Ireland, where, since the 1960s, the idea of 'community development' has been very much in vogue. Self-help groups have also been active in other fields, especially in education. They have not only provided facilities for adults, but have even initiated, or rescued, primary schools in remote areas.
