Drawing inspiration from the Council of Europe Strategy for Social Cohesion, this volume analyses from different angles the new forms of economic solidarity and responsibility which European citizens are setting in place to respond to the modern-day challenges of human and environmental vulnerability. Some legal concepts and frameworks are emerging here in response to these ethical, solidarity-based initiatives and should be read with this basic question in mind: is it possible to give a "political" meaning (in the sense of polis, the common good, or social cohesion) to individual economic choices?