The starting question is whether "work for all" is still anything more than a myth of the past twentieth century, given the persistently high levels of unemployment. There are underlying uncertainties – not only regarding employment, but especially concerning performance and profit maximization as supposed foundations of existential security.

Concepts of sustainable and solidarity-based economic practices seem to offer clues toward solutions to these and other questions.

This latent uncertainty likely contributes to the emergence of numerous "new" initiatives within the "solidarity economy" or "share economy." These are mostly oriented toward subsistence and the common good, and they see themselves as counter-models to the "traditional economic model". But do they truly offer serious alternatives to traditional employment?

From an economic history perspective, such initiatives and projects within the "solidarity economy" are not entirely new – but they tend to gain renewed interest whenever the limits of existing systems become apparent, such as now, with a strained labor market and increasingly unequal distribution of resources.