Social Cooperation as a Driver for a Social and Solidarity Focused Approach to the Circular Economy

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The article called “Social cooperation as a driver for a social and solidarity focused
approach to the Circular Economy” deals with a very important aspect of the circular economy, namely social cooperation.

 

In the introduction, the authors should state in a better way what the GAP is that they intend to cover with their article, i.e. the main contribution they are making to the literature. To this end, it would be helpful if they could situate the reader in the current state of research in the field. This ties in with the need for the article to have a section reviewing the literature on the subject.

Subsequently, the authors give a description of the work carried out in which they indicate that a survey of 13 social cooperatives was carried out, which is an excessively small sample and in my opinion invalidates the research. Moreover, as the authors acknowledge, the location of the sample is geographically very limited.

Furthermore, we are not provided with detailed information on the type of survey, its content, and the basis on which it was conducted, i.e. whether the survey had been used previously by other authors, for example.

Nor are we provided with detailed information on the results of the survey.

For these reasons, I consider that, although the subject of the paper is interesting, the article lacks the validity to be published.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Methods:

Expand on how the survey was organized (e.g. how the 13 cooperatives were identified, response rate, etc)

As for the interviews, give details on who the respondents are and how they were chosen

Give more information on the focus group participants and explain how they were identified

 

Literature:

Exapnd on the literature on Solidarity Economy with authors such as José Luis Coraggio and Euclides Andrè Mance, who better specify the local dimension of local Solidarity Economy projects and the importance of maintaining a connection with the local territory and a network approach.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

This is an interesting article that contributes to the generation of scientific knowledge.
It provides relevant information about the case study.
A relevant bibliographic review is made, although it does not go as deep as necessary in the concept of the SSE, being only named the definition of RIPEES, it would be desirable to seek other sources that give greater depth to the concept at European level and link it, thus, with the Italian reality.
The section on results is a bit short; more detail would be desirable.
Among the challenges of cooperatives in terms of their own development and internal functioning, it is worth mentioning the management of their own idiosyncrasies in a capitalist market environment. How do they avoid market isomorphism?
Otherwise, a good article that I recommend publishing with minor changes.

 

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

After reading the work done by the authors, following the indications given in the first review, I am pleased to see that these have been taken into account and therefore the article now meets the necessary requirements to be published.