Social Economy as Social Science and Practice: Historical Perspectives on France,

Our reflection will play out in multiple steps:

• First of all, it is necessary to return to the debate about the constitution of social economy in its relation to classical political economy (as its potential continuation, critique or an alternative);

• With the constitution of economic science, we note that social economy as a concept and as a practice separates into Walrasian “social economics” on the one hand and “cooperative economy”, on the other hand, which should be understood as an analytic method specific to organizations;

• From the 1970s onwards, the return of the term “social economy” became the object of intense debates concerning its conceptualization, in relation with mainstream economics, institutionalist economics or economic sociology.

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