Social Innovation, the Social Economy and World Economic Development: Democracy and Labour Rights in an Era of Globalization

The world of work and labour is in a permanent transformation affecting the various social groups in the different parts of the world quite unequally. Social innovations, related to the idea of economic progress and well-being, tackle the problems of employment leading to social exclusion and poverty as a consequence of the extreme positioning in favour of economic performance. An alternative economy complements the deficiency of both the market and the State. This volume presents contributions from scholars coming from different continents, about Social Economy, Labour Rights, corporate Social Responsibility, Social Regulations and Public Policies. Social innovations have huge impacts on national and regional economies as their sources come from the citizen. Many initiatives presented in this volume are a social response by civil society to poverty, precarious employment, job losses, long term unemployment, delocalisation and de-industrialisation.

The Editors: Denis Harrisson is Professor at the Department of Organizations and Human Resources, School of Management - Université du Québec à Montréal, and director of the Center of research on social innovations.
György Széll is Director of the Japan Research Centre at the University of Osnabrück (Germany) and founding president of the international network Regional and local Development of Work and Labour.
Reynald Bourque is Professor at the School of Industrial Relations at the Université de Montréal (Canada).