Territorial cooperation

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The cooperative principle is often put forward as a method of organizations governance and management. However, it can also be conceptualised and put into practice as inter-organisational cooperation within a given territory.

From an economic point of view, territorial cooperation then becomes a method of coordination between stakeholders, or even a method of regulation and allocation of resources that is more efficient and less exclusionary than competition (market) or public administration (redistribution). And at the same time, a political project to reappropriate the territory in order to find solutions to existing fragmentation. It has also become a priority for SSE policies, which can be applied in different ways depending on the context, with local authorities playing an active role in the experimentations...

Territorial cooperation is characterised by the participation and contributions of the various stakeholders (SSE entrepreneurships, associations, SSE networks, Local authorities, SMEs, researchers, etc), without hierarchical relations, in the service of the ecological transition, the relocation and local anchoring of activities and employment and/or local development, etc.

It is based on the pooling of shared problems in a given area, the interdependence of activities, the combination of interests and the complementarity of skills.

It can take the form of a network based on an awareness of the challenges and constraints of interdependences, or be structured voluntarily between people and organisations in a meta-organisation or an intermediary place, with a legal status. ^[1]

Main networks working on this issue

In France, The Mouvement pour l'Economie Solidaire (MES) and its members all over the country; the RTES (Réseaux des Collectivités Territoriales pour une Economie Solidaire).

Territorial cooperation around Europe

In France: promotion of shared spaces(living labs, etc.), solidarity-based third places, Pôles Territoriaux de Coopération Economique (PTCE), collaboration and exchanges between SSE companies and VSE-SMEs around the structuring of supply chains, short food supply chains or investment by local authorities in SCICs for local services of general interest, experiments in job creation linked to the territory, such as the Territoires Zéro Chômeurs Longue Durée (TZCLD) (Zero Long-Term Unemployed Territories), etc.