INTERREG-SUDOE Retscoop Project: Rural Economic Transitions through Social Economy and Cooperation

The project proposes to experiment with building a shared support methodology among social and solidarity economy (SSE) networks for rural entities affected by future major socioeconomic changes, through the creation of local cooperation platforms. It primarily targets territories facing a necessary transformation of their economy, whether because they are highly specialized in a particular sector (agriculture, viticulture, tourism, etc.), threatened by climate change, or experiencing a decline in attractiveness and population.

To initiate this change, cooperation between multiple actors appears to be a key success factor and will be the guiding principle of the proposed methodology: to develop a shared diagnosis of the territory, a prospective vision and an action plan with all economic, associative, institutional and citizen actors; and to promote new activities through cooperation dynamics between these actors.

Indeed, the project partners have found that there is no formalized methodology to support local entities in this global approach to changing the economic model in their territory, so they will take advantage of the skills and experience of organizations dedicated to promoting the social and solidarity economy in France, Spain and Portugal, in order to jointly develop a toolbox for rural territories.