The White Paper on cooperativism and the social economy of the Valencian Community prepared by CIRIEC-Spain and published in 2019 showed that the Valencian social economy is a powerful social and economic reality in the region. But it also revealed that the social economy integrates, together with the market producing companies, a very wide network of non-market producing entities: the associations, foundations and three singular entities such as Cáritas, Cruz Roja and ONCE, a group better known as the Third Sector. The White Paper revealed that 90.2% of the 34,914 entities and companies in the Valencian social economy, 56.4% of its 9 million members, 37.9% of its 12,975.1 million euros of income and 57.4% of its 172,444 paid workers, to which must be added more than half a million volunteers, correspond to this Third Sector. Surprisingly, in spite of its socio-economic importance, up to the present time there have been few scientific studies that have dealt with this Third Sector as a whole, as well as with the different families that make up this sector in Spain, Europe and also in the Valencian Community. The aforementioned White Paper made a first exploration of some families in this large third sector. However, it became clear that further study was needed. This is the main purpose of this report, which constitutes the second part of the White Paper. The objectives of the present study are four: firstly, to make progress in the conceptual delimitation and in the external and internal perimetry of this part of the social economy, the social non-market economy, also known as the third sector. Secondly, to provide an overview of the overall quantitative dimensions and the large families that make up the Valencian third sector. The third objective is to offer a characterisation of the main families of the Valencian third sector, with special attention to the social, cultural, sports, development cooperation, foundational, voluntary and singular entities areas. The fourth objective is to identify the institutional, legal and public policy framework that affects the Valencian third sector. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Chaves, R. y Monzón, J.L. (dir) (2020): Libro blanco de la economía social y del tercer sector de la Comunitat Valenciana, Ciriec-España editorial, Valencia.336p.
