Social economy and economic crisis in the basque country abstract

This article examines the socio-economic evolution of the social economy sector in the Basque Country during the 2008-2014 period of economic crisis. Data have been obtained within a framework of collaboration between university, Basque Government and private sector of the social economy. The results suggest that such entities have evolved better, both in terms of number of enterprises and employment, than the general economy of the Basque Country, while the context of public policies aimed at social economy has worsened over the years. However, in economic terms (measured through the Gross Value Added generated), they have not been able to cope with the crisis in equal conditions to the general economy. The main contribution of this research lies in that, unlike similar studies, it discusses the evolution of the whole sector of the social economy, taking as reference a broad period of the current economic crisis.

Determining factors of the innovative behavior of cooperatives: an analysis of the case of Castilla y León

Cooperatives have a long historical experience in the Spanish economy and have demonstrated their ability to compete against traditional firms in the market. To maintain this capability, while taking advantage of the competitive advantages associated with their idiosyncrasies as social economy enterprises, they should take into consideration that the economy is increasingly globalized and increasingly knowledge-based, especially with regards to technological content. As a consequence, the innovative capacity appears to be a key aspect in order to be able to challenge competitors. This article characterizes the innovative behavior of cooperatives in the region of Castile and Leon and analyses the internal and external factors affecting their innovative performance, based on data from a survey of 581 cooperatives. The results of the empirical analysis, which is performed by multivariate binary logistic regression on various types of innovation, lead us to identify the size of the organizations, the existence of planning, the R & D activities and the human capital as the main determining factors.

Social economy, youth and employment

Organizations of the Social Economy in Spain accounted for 13% of employment and 12% of GDP in 2013, according to the Spanish Confederation fo Social Economy. Also, according to various institutions and studies, the role of Social Economy has become relevant due to they represent a model promoting the creation of collective business projects with greater sustainability and potential than models of individual self-employment. However, despite all this, there are few academic studies or sectoral reports analyzing employment in this sector, especially in the case of youth employment. This study aims to fill this gap in the literature analyzing the scared available data in order to show the numbers and characteristics of youth employment in this sector. Results show the weight of youth employment in the Social Economy is higher than the economy overall.

La museología en la encrucijada de los caminos

Durante los últimos años han aparecido un gran número de publicaciones sobre las perspectivas de evolución del mundo de los museos. La reflexión sobre el futuro de estas instituciones no es reciente: la prospectiva, método dirigido a elaborar posibles escenarios en el futuro, no es estrictamente hablando museológica, pero necesariamente interesa al museólogo interrogarse sobre el campo museal. A decir verdad, en su mayoría son profesionales del museo quienes han escrito sobre el tema (en el contexto museal) para adaptar la institución a los nuevos retos. Algunos museólogos, se han arriesgado a este ejercicio, de manera más o menos afortunada. El artículo pretende, después de presentar la literatura prospectiva sobre el museo durante los últimos cincuenta años, y de analizar los recientes resultados de los informes de prospectiva, interrogarse sobre la contribución específica de una reflexión museológica acerca del futuro de los museos más allá de los ejes clásicos (demografía, economía, nuevas tecnologías) que se utilizan con más frecuencia.