Entre solidariedade e justificação: uma sociologia das práticas de economia solidária no sul do Brasil

The present research is inserted in the questioning concerning the phenomenon of the sol- idarity economy. From the analysis of documents relating to the Esperanca/Cooesperanca Project, which gathers diverse associations and coopera- tives of the solidarity economy in the city of Saint Maria (Rio Grande do Sul State), we seek to identify the evaluative hierarchies that underlie the justifi ca- tion of associations and cooperatives of the solidar- ity economy as well as the rhetoric used to transmit these values. This study concludes that the solidar- ity economy has a justifi cation of its own that builds on a critique of the capitalist system. In this sense, it builds its own principles and presents itself as a social transformation project for the economy. It is noted, however, that the solidarity economy is em- bedded in what is called "hybridization of the econ- omy": it mixes elements of a monetary, non-mon- etary and redistributive economy, which allows to understand it as a set of economic practices marked by plurality. In this way, the solidarity economy is not an economy without market, but with a market based on values and principles diff erent from lib- eral ideas.