Contents1 Introduction to the social and solidarity economy (SSE) fieldof research 1Marie J. Bouchard, Damien Rousselière, and Carl CenerelliPART I DEFINING THE FIELD OF SSE2 Social and solidarity economy approaches: a brief conceptualanalysis 22Marthe Nyssens and Marie J. Bouchard3 Historical perspectives on the institutionalisation of the socialand solidarity economy 45Timothée DuvergerPART II DEVELOPING SSE ORGANISATIONS4 Public policies for the social and solidarity economy 66Rafael Chaves-Avila, Juan R. Gallego-Bono, Belen CatalaEstada, and Teresa Savall Morera5 Governing and managing social and solidarity economyorganisations 88Roger Spear, Madeg Le Guernic, and Chris Cornforth6 Financing solidarity: building an alternative financial system 114Amélie Artis7 The impact of the laws on the social and solidarity economyon organizational cooperative law 138Sofia Adam, Ifigeneia Douvitsa, and Hagen HenrÿPART III PERSPECTIVES ON THE FIELD OF SSE8 Internationalization of social and solidarity economyorganizations 161Anjel Errasti, Ignacio Bretos, and Carmen Marcuello9 The ecosystems of the social and solidarity economy:essential for the challenges of our time 188Marie J. Bouchard, Jean-Marc Fontan, and Benoît Lévesque10 Communal studies and intentional communities: key featuresand main contributions to the understanding of the social andsolidarity economy 209Michel Lallement and Damien Rousselière11 Distinctive characteristics of the social and solidarityeconomy in Latin America 228Juan Fernando Álvarez, Valeria Mutuberría Lazarini, andCarmen Marcuello12 The social and solidarity economy: the contribution ofemergence and the importance of North-South dialogue 253Jean-Louis Laville13 Community economies, transformation pathways and thesocial and solidarity economy 274Katherine Gibson.