What is social economy?
Social economy is focusing all attentions on human beings themselves. Capital cannot be more important than people.
It, therefore, gives more weigh to jobs than capital income and to social network created through labour.
Social economy means 'activities of organizations which operate under the principles that regulate profit distribution based on the ownership of quotas of capital and democratic decision-making process.' It seems a very new concept, but many common economic activities of our society such as fair trade, local exchange trading system(LETS), consumer cooperatives, social enterprise and village enterprises are actually included in social economic activities.
Social economy creates alternative forms of work and strengthens the social supports network built through local community chain with friendship.
It is also crucial since it stimulates the consumption of other social service with the expansion of such social network as well.
 
Emergence of Social Economy  
In the past, Western nations had not experienced this economic abondance and the enormous inequality now they are facing at the same time. There are thousands of people in poor and neglected classes in this society. In order to resolve these challenges, new goals should be settled. Especially aiming a goal of establishing the 'solidarity economy(Économie solidaire)' which would allow current society relying heavily on labor and income to be separated from those factors is crucial. This society has been failing to build a sound market economy and there also have been emerging challenges such as high income gap between different economic classes in society. Beneath of these problems, there is a weakened universal value system whom members of our society share.