European rural areas, face societal, demographic, economic and environmental pressures due to global transformations and crises. They are in need of a renewal by social innovation that increases their resilience and reduces the adverse effects on their socioeconomic and environmental sustainability. Unbalanced development impacts their populations’ lively-hoods and well-being in general, but it affects the most those people who are already in precarious and fragile positions.

SERIGO produces evidence-based theoretical and practicable knowledge on how the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) can support resilience, social inclusion, and ‘good life’ in European rural areas. Based on the research results produced, the aim is also to provide insights and recommendations on what framework conditions and policy arrangements are necessary to promote this, as well as to trigger constructive debates and collaborations around this issue involving diverse set of stakeholders in Europe.

The project applies an intersectional perspective to vulnerability, as well as implements critical systems thinking in combination with community-based participatory research to investigate potentials of the social economy in promoting social inclusion and in enhancing the quality and accessibility of services in rural areas. Empirical data is gathered in a high number of qualitative case studies from 13 countries on social economy solutions implemented in local contexts. Using the multi-actor approach, SERIGO benefits from more nuanced and ’live’ insights into the drivers of social exclusion offered through the lenses of local stakeholders working together with researchers on co-created experimental pilots in five European regions. SERIGO ensures also with a system of deliberate feedback loops, dedicated multi-level policy workshops and a sustained thematic community of practice that the new knowledge generated is pertinent and applicable, and all its outputs have high exploitable potential.