Social innovation, an analytical grid for understanding the social economy: the example of the Quebec housing sector

Over the past few decades, there has been renewed interest in the social economy, especially in relation to the employment crisis and the reshaping of State's interventions. The social economy plays an important role in solving new social problems with pioneering solutions, especially in the field of public services. It is important to better understand its innovative function. This article discusses the notion of social innovation and explains how it can be used as an analytical framework for understanding the social economy. The case of Quebec's social economy housing serves to illustrate this proposition.