Speakers Anne Musson and Vincent Bony at the Nature & Progrès Festival.
A recognised scholar in social and solidarity-based economy, Anne Musson regularly seizes opportunities to share her expertise and insights and engage in public debate all across France. Recently she was again invited to two public events the area of the Massif Central.
On 19 November, she took part in the biennial festival of Nature & Progrès, a French organisation established in 1964, which certifies good practices in business, especially for farms and craftsman. The local federation of the Haute-Loire département stages the festival in order to promote promote such practices, organising a market of organic goods and a series of conferences and brainstorming sessions.
Anne spoke during the 6th edition of this festival, focusing on the topic of cooperation. She presented how cooperations are a key factor for the wealth of territories. Based on the essential component of mutual trust between members, cooperations are a way to create social capital, a major component of all countries’ wealth. Anne concluded her speech with some concrete examples of territories where a sustainable development dynamic had started with cooperations. In the wake of her lecture, she was interviewed by the regional newspaper Le Progrès.
The next day, on 20 November, she was a guest speaker at the Social Economy Week in Thiers, a former manufacturing town in the Puy-de-Dôme département. Invited by the Conseil Général, the local administration authority, Anne explained how Social and Solidarity-Based Economy is creating wealth in a sustainable way in a variety of territories. This lecture was addressed to local decision-makers and experts as well as the general public.
Travelling to these rural areas for such public speeches is tiresome, but especially for a field of expertise like Social and Solidarity-Based Economy it’s the highway to engagement with civil society and public debate.
