L’Economie solidaire en Turquie et son écosystème : un avenir encore incertain

The emergence of solidarity economy initiatives in Turkey calls us more generally to question the relationship between the actors of social entrepreneurship and the public authorities, and more particularly, the way that they evolve in an unfavourable ecosystem. If history reminds us that the actors of social entrepreneurship (foundations, cooperatives and associations) in Turkey have suffered from recurrent political instability, and that they have more or less deviated from the legal essence of their vocation, we would like to better understand solidarity economy initiatives in an ecosystem marked by the decline of rights and freedoms. Consequently, our aim here is to question the Western conception of civil society based on an ideal of solidarity linked to a process of individualisation and allowing individuals to move from the private to the public sphere, and to raise the question of its conversion in areas where the conditions for its emergence would not be found. To do this, we relied on research based on several field surveys carried out between September 2017 and September 2019 in six sectors (short food circuits, alternative education, self-construction, popular university, help to refugees, as well as collective catering and culture). These data allow us to claim that solidarity economy initiatives are taking up issues in order to meet expectations, aspirations and more justice compared to society market and state structures. Secondly, it emerges that they also do not renounce the principles of law and freedom of the rule of law in modern democratic societies. On the contrary, their more horizontal functioning than traditional civil society organizations calls for a participatory democracy that would promote a process of emancipation of individuals, even of those historically rooted in village community membership. Finally, if the ecosystem still does not seem inclined to recognise solidarity economy initiatives as implementations of public action, their mode of self-organisation, based on a principle of reciprocity, does not lock itself into an organisational vision. Conversely, by inserting themselves into a mutualism of sectoral (or intersectoral at the local level) networks, solidarity economy initiatives tend to demonstrate both the viability of their economic model and their capacity to instil civic governance with positive externalities in terms of local development.