This text is a balance of current studies on Social Economy, with three goals in mind: Firstly, it seeks to set out a profile of theoretical discussions, examining those authors who consider Social Economy a process of social transformation or those who emphasize the ephemeral character of economic units inside this sector; secondly, it analyses the Argentinean experience, one of the most important social phenomenon in the first years of the current decade; finally, based on some balances on the national level, it looks at the Brazilian experience. The final considerations underline the complexity of the Social economy phenomenon, criticizing dualistic analyses, which emphasize either its potentialities or its limits.
Social economics; Income and employment generation; Cooperatives; Self-management; Labor market