ABSTRACT
The chapter analyses how different policies and institutional formations impact the development of solid and interconnected social and solidarity economy (SSE) spatialities through experiences of promotion carried out by the municipalities of the Conurbano Bonaerense, the largest urban agglomeration in Argentina and one of the most important in Latin America. Based on fieldwork carried out with a comparative approach, we identified that 14 of the 24 municipalities had SSE policies. This chapter focuses on San Martín and Moreno, the most complex cases, which have different orientations. On the one hand, San Martín, which we consider to be a true co-construction laboratory, is committed to developing an SSE ecosystem, which includes popular economy (PE), from the local level to other territories in Argentina. On the other hand, Moreno followed the national imprint of “social policy of Social Economy.” Although innovations were produced and it was the first municipality to legitimise previously invisible PE practices located within the boundaries of the municipality, this case persisted in an imagery that underestimated the potential of these economies, especially the more powerful community-based actors. After a brief presentation of each territory, the chapter focuses on the SSE institutionalisation process; the main targets of the policies and the instruments in the circulation sphere. Understanding the complexities of the cases as inspirational, the final reflections pay particular attention to the role of the academy in relation to our social and political responsibility to make more progress also in the field of instrumental proposals from critical thinking.
