Abstract

The global extractivist system has had devastating consequences, both for the ecosystems that sustain life on this planet and for the human beings who are part of them. Planning the transition to a more ecological and democratic economic fabric would involve basing institutional creativity on the in-depth study of concrete experiences. It is in this sense that this work sets out to (i) analyze the development of "integral cooperatives" in Portugal; (ii) identify the principles that contribute to their economic, ecological and social sustainability and resilience; (iii) propose public policies that foster their viability and replicability, with a view to strengthening the Portuguese social economy. It is hoped that this anthropological research will contribute, on the one hand, to the growing transdisciplinary and transnational literature on community economies, solidarity economy and ecological economics and, on the other, to a strategy of economic decentralization that will enable the country's current socio-environmental challenges to be tackled by fostering sovereignty and local development.

Team