Structural evolution of academic literature on the social and solidarity economy between 2009 and 2024: how did the academic field develop during this period?

Abstract

The social and solidarity economy (SSE) is a growing field of research, whose rapid expansion warrants systematic mapping to unravel its intellectual structure and thematic trajectories. The aim of this study is to determine the intellectual structure and key performance indicators that define this field at the international level. To this end, a rigorous bibliometric analysis was conducted on a corpus of 300 documents extracted from the Scopus database and processed using the Biblioshiny/Vosviewer tool. The methodology combined performance analysis and structural analysis. The results confirm the prevalence of highly specialized publications (Bradford's Law) and highlight the importance of international co-publications for visibility.