Social Economy in Region Vstra Gtaland

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Social Economy in Region Västra Götaland

• Bologna 26-27 Mars

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Our definition

• The social economy of our country embraces
  activities that primarily have social objectives,
  are founded on democratic values and are
  independent from the organisations of the public
  sector. Its activities are conducted mainly in
  societies, cooperative associations and
  foundations and its principle motivating force is
  serving the public interest or the interests of
  members, thus not an interest in profit.

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The importance of Social economy

• The idealistic popular national movement
  tradition has built the swedish welfare 100 years
  ago.
• 200 000 associations and societies, 32 millions
  of memberships in Sweden. Leading in the world in
  numbers of associations per capita.
• Västra Götaland is the leading region in Sweden
  in the field of social economy.
• One of 20 companies in Västra Götaland belongs to
  Social Economy and 4 percent of the jobs in the
  region.
• The Social Economy is the most important sector
  of creating and carrying the social capital.

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Problems and difficulties

• Moving responsibility from the public sector to
  the social economy is a controversial question in
  Sweden, the public sector has a strong position
  in the swedish consciousness.
• Public purchasing rules impedes small actors to
  take part.
• Criterias for european and national contributions
  keeps back small and idealistic actors.
• Absence of statistics about the importance of
  social economy

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Main actors

• Regional Council for Social Economy
• 4 regional networks of Social economy
• 4 regional Coompanion, center of cooperation
  support and training.
• A large number of swedish popular movements in
  different fields(churches, sports, labour
  movement e.g.).
• An increasing numbers of voluntary organisations.
• Cooperative companys and Social enterprises.

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Programme for social economy in Västra Götaland
2008-2010

• A programme in cooperation between the social
  economy and Region Västra Götaland
• 3 operational areas Joint action and
  coordination, strengthen entrepreneurship and
  special target groups, knowledge development and
  network-building.
• 16 listed areas of initiatives
• The programme is in accordance to the main
  regional programmes, for instance Vision Västra
  Götaland.

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Economic support of Social Economy by Region
Västra Götaland

• Commissions to actors of the sector(Coompanion
  e.g).
• Financing projects related to the programme for
  social economy.
• Financing other projects by actors in the sector.
• Announcing the new contribution programme of
  Social entrepreneurship 2009-2012.

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Legislation

• Programme p 9 Laws and sets of regulations are
  written for profit
• oriented businesses and do not always function
  completely where the
• needs of society are a central concern. It may be
  a matter of handling
• VAT, the forms and conditions of different types
  of wage contributions
• or labour legislation and other legal issues.
  The Region should take an
• active part in forming public opinion in this
  field.

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Social Economy Social Capital

• What role does Social Capital have in fostering
  Social Economy now and in the future?
• A model illustrating different actors
• Social Economy
• Business
  Public S.

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The institutional context in Sweden

• Enterprise policy is changing Traditional model
  in Sweden is based on co-operation between
  Business and Public Sector
• Change in strategy from state From supporting
  majors to empasizing SMEs
• Majors have different logic than SMEs
  relations are institutional
• However, Social Capital, seen as social networks,
  has a very important role in early phases of
  development of businesses, also in Social
  Economy.

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Future prospects for social economy

• Change in society forces public sector to be more
  flexible, which makes social economy an
  alternative (less rigid structure)
• In local settings Social economy and traditional
  SMEs are difficult to separate? (Possible to
  work in both at the same time)
• A long tradition of co-operation makes the social
  economy sustainable with new technique
• Structural change will make social capital more
  important as a resource, especially in fostering
  SMEs and Social Economy

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• Füsun Uzuner
• Maria Henriksson
• www.coompanion.se

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Coompanion

• Co-operative development agency
• 25 co-operative development center
• Member of the Swedish assocation for co-operative
  development agencies
• Information, counselling and education

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Main activities

• To inform, educate and give advice about
  cooperative issues
• Social economy and social enterprising
• Cooperative enterprises
• Local development
• Networking
• Development tools and methods for social economy

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Cooperative is a smart way to run a business.
It combines the best of both worlds - Results
orientation and humanity