Mapping Discourse on the Social Economy and Reassessing its meaning in the Light of Catholic Social Teaching

Today, the question of social economy evaluation is emerging as a new research area; it asks how the social economy should be evaluated, how it is being evaluated and how evaluation may reinforce or weaken its identity. The Catholic social tradition was an original source of inspiration for the emergence of the social economy, and Catholic Church organisations continue today to make significant practical contributions to the sector.  Therefore, the underpinning ethics of the Catholic social tradition merit investigation as a normative basis for guiding social economy evaluation. Focusing on the documentary tradition of Catholic social teaching, and combining a historical consciousness methodology with critical discourse analysis, the proposed research investigates how recontextualizing Catholic social teaching can yield a normative framework of reference for social economy evaluation and development.