La economía social: concepto, macromagnitudes y yacimiento de empleo para el Trabajo Social

Abstract

The Social Economy, a third sector between capitalist economy and public economy, is a field in expansion in modern societies in a context of economic and social transformations and of restructuring of public action. The aims of this article are three. First, to conceptualize the field of the Social Economy and to identify its main structural agents. Second, to present general figures of this socioeconomic field in Spain and in Europe. The main conclusion is that the Social Economy is a very important in human and economic terms: over 14,5 million paid employees in Europe and near one million in Spain. Last, to analyze the opportunities of this field for social workers in the future considering recent changes in social services laws.