Cercetare și publicații

From public ownership back to commons. Lessons learnt from the Romanian experience in the forest sector

Ancuța Vameșu, Cristina Barna & Irina Opincaru 2018

CIRIEC STUDIES SERIES – 1

Credit Unions in Romania – a strong social enterprise model to combat financial exclusion and over indebtedness Cristina BARNA & Ancuţa VAMESU CIRIEC Working Paper N° 2015/11

Credit unions are social economy entities that have an important contribution to preventing financial and social exclusion in Romania. Historically, we can speak about credit unions in Romania from XVIII century until present. These social economy entities have been a considerable support during all these times for persons with low income in Romania, being credible institutions in the communist period, and also after 1990 Revolution, facing successfully all turbulent economic transformations and global challenges, adapting and developing themselves continuously until present, when they begin to embrace microfinance and adopt the European Code of good-practice in micro-finance. They have the potential to become a successful social economy model, very instrumental in providing affordable loans and safe saving and also contributing to local development through support for entrepreneurship and job creation.
Our paper has as objective to describe and analyze the specificity of Romanian credit union model, that could be seen in the same time as a social innovation, with a big multiplier effect in economy and society, generating inclusive growth and development; an overview of the dynamics of the sector, considering the most recent available statistical data. The paper will include the preliminary research results of the project “ICAR – inclusion by micro-credit and mutual help – sustainable strategy of social economy for employment and creation of social enterprises”, regarding the general context of access to financial services in Romania, financial exclusion and over-indebtedness.
Key-words: credit union, financial exclusion, social exclusion, social economy, mutual financial help, micro-credit.

Incluziune financiară prin economia socială – coord.: Cristina Barna, Ancuţa Vameşu. – Bucureşti

2015Wolters Kluwer, 2015 ISBN 978-606-677-015-6

Aparuta in decembrie 2015 sub coordonarea dr. Cristina Barna si Ancuta Vamesu si avandu-i in colectivul de autori pe Irina Sinziana Opincaru, dr. Paul A Jones (Faculty of Education, Health and Community, John Moores University, Liverpool), si Stelian Minoiu (Uniunea Nationala a Caselor de Ajutor Reciproc din Romania), lucrarea reprezinta un manual care abordeaza problematica incluziunii financiare si rolul organizatiilor de economie sociala in realizarea acesteia.
Lucrarea Incluziune financiara prin economia sociala se adreseaza publicului larg (cercetatori, mediu academic, mediu ONG, institutiilor financiare si reprezentantilor acestora, decidentilor si totodata omului simplu care cauta solutii de iesire din supraindatorare, excluziune financiara si din cercul vicios al saraciei) si deschide dezbaterile catre necesitatea unui sistem financiar incluziv, in care furnizorii de servicii financiare din economia sociala pot sa joace un rol decisiv.

Reviving Social Economy in Romania – between emerging social enterprises in all sectors, surviving communist coops, and subsidiaries of globalization actors

Cristina BARNA & Ancuţa VAMEşU

CIRIEC Working Paper N° 2014/07

Social economy could be considered a response to the current eco-socio-economic crisis, in fact the first crisis of the globalization era. Developing social economy could mean sustainable, largely non-exportable jobs, social inclusion, improvement of local social services, and territorial cohesion. Maybe the tensions between “global” and “local” show a new wave of globalization system whose pre-condition is a sustainable territorial development. Romania in particular has faced a fast-paced transition from a closed society and economy to a country acting in a global market, including an
open, global labor market. This meant dramatic changes in property regime and work, employment conditions, a context in which solutions from the top did no longer work and generated a framework for new organizational and entrepreneurial forms of social economy to play a role. Can institutions of the social economy create the path towards territorial, locally-based development in Romania? Could these territories become anchors in the context of the structural changes we live, for a real “globalization with human face”? We face a paradigm shift in a changing Europe, we have to unlock the potential of social enterprises – the emerging types, but also the past surviving coops.Research objectives: 1. Analysis of the conceptual framework: social economy, social entrepreneurship and the emergence of social enterprise in Romania. Mapping key segments of social economy in Romania: Story of lost values – surviving communist coops, future cooperative movement in Romania. 3. Case study of a pilot rural territory where a comprehensive social economy startup project has been developed Horezu Romania Idealis project. What would be the role of social economy in a territorial development in Horezu? Value-chain analysis.