Vatican City (AsiaNews) - It is in a new combination of subsidiarity and solidarity that one can find "the key" for transforming globalisation - with its positive and negative effects on society - into a "civilisation of the common good".  This is the "wager" in play at the plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, meeting from today until May 6 to examine the theme "Pursuing the Common Good: How Solidarity and Subsidiarity Can Work Together".

The general purpose of the meeting, presented today at the Vatican, "is to give new meaning and application to the concept of common good in this age of globalisation, which in certain fields is leading to growing inequalities and social injustice, lacerations and fragmentations of the social fabric, in short, to the destruction of common goods throughout the world. This does not mean supporting the thesis that globalisation is only a negative process, but rather highlighting, studying and enhancing the positive elements it entails as specific opportunities that need support and governance in order to produce those common goods that can make society more human in the near future".

There will also be analysis of the principles of Catholic social doctrine - often misinterpreted or viewed in a reductionist manner - regarding their correct interpretation and application, with special attention to their articulations and interconnections. "It is a matter of making the reciprocity, complementarity and correlations that structure them stand out clearly. The working hypothesis is that the abstract concept of common good can be concretely defined as 'common goods as relational goods'".

"At the practical-operational level, some case studies on good practices will be presented, which are useful to verify the hypothesis according to which a new combination of subsidiarity and solidarity can nurture those social processes that activate and cause the circulation of gifts and the social reciprocity from which common goods, intended as relational goods, proceed. These are the products of an authentically civil society. The good practices that will be discussed are: new forms of solidary and subsidiary economy (the 'economy of communion' and the 'Food Bank'); shared access (peer to peer) to information goods on communication networks (the Internet); the new 'Local Alliances for the Family' (born in Germany and spreading throughout Europe); subsidiary educational activities in developing countries (intervention in a local community in Salvador, Bahia); third sector organisations using the instrument of micro-credit for social, economic and human development".