ABSTRACT
In the context of Sicily, the solidarity-type social enterprise is illustrative by a new form of cooperative named social cooperative which has the specificity to gather different stakeholders in the process of decision-making. The economic context can put a damper on the solidarity-type social enterprises, whose purpose is not strictly entrepreneurship, but also solidarity orientation. The context can generate both “virtuous networks essential to survival on the market for these social enterprises, and on the contrary, it can open fatal sinkholes that lead to their failure”. Confronted with the crime economy, social enterprises must embody a shared political ideal as an instrument of social change. Beginning at the production stage, and for certain products right up to transformation and packaging, each step is handled by social cooperatives or subcontracted to other local economic players. A more radical critique is necessary to envision the economy differently, to enact a real transformation of the system.
