Good Practices in Social Economy in Greece and in Other States of the European Union

The purpose of the book is to place, as well as possible, the social economy within the integrative European policies for social inclusion and to supply examples of good practices from Greece and from other member states of the European Union. The book consists of four sections. The first section presents the main coordinates of the European policies for social inclusion, correlated with the specific initiatives of the social economy. The second section describes the main features of the good practices in the social field, clarifies the importance and role of social economy structures evaluation and monitoring using methods of scientific research and shows the results reported by other studies on the good practices in social economy. Chapter three discusses the indicators used to show the good practices across the European Union. Based on the common grid of indicators used as reference framework, eight of the best practices identified in Greece and in other European countries are described. The chapter highlights the importance of the most usual resource used by the described best practices – the social capital – and brings arguments to the circular relation with the social economy, while giving some directions to develop the formula which activates the potential of this form of social economy. Chapter four supplies a set of recommendations on how to capitalise on the gathered experience, by setting broad directions for the subsequent development of the social economy. The EU regulations on social economy are presented, as well as the links between the social economy and EU policies. The book end with an appendix drafting the picture of the European structures involved in the field of social economy, both at the European and at the national level, whose purpose is to provide more knowledge to the interested reader.