Whose social economy? Debating new state practices in Qu¥ebec

Despite the pressures of globalization, states remain relevant and maintain significant social policy capacities. Fulfilling these capacities has required innovation, with states increasingly acting on a local scale and seeking to leverage other actors’ resources to meet their ends. The study of the state–community interface in the construction of the social economy in QuÈbec highlights that the renewed state remains as much an object of social struggle as before. The question for communities in QuÈbec, as elsewhere, is whether they can organize to advance democracy, or whether they will be harnessed to underwrite national accumulation strategies.