Elements of a Solidarity Economy

Because solidarity economics is more of a strategic organizing process than a structural economic model, developing « maps » of the solidarity economy landscape is crucial to the movement. Such maps can serve to more clearly

identify the relationships (actual or possible) between cooperative and democratic practices of livelihood. This map organizes solidarity

initiatives around each of the interconnected phases of economic life: creation, production, exchange, consumption and waste. Charting these

phases, and the forms of collective organization positioned within each one, the image allows us to more clearly envision creative and complimentary forms of mutual-support and interconnection between initiatives working at

each point of the economic cycle.

Grassroots Economic Organizing, June-July 2006