The Use of Fuzzy Mathematics for Socio-environmental Evaluation in Social Economy

In this paper, I propose an analysis of an innovative model recently developed by the Community Foundation of Messina (a granting foundation in Southern Italy) which relies on the use of fuzzy mathematics to evaluate the economic, social and environmental impacts of given projects or enterprises in a specific context. I will appraise such model in the light of more general problems within model-building and model characteristics in economics. Economics stands in a rather peculiar position within social sciences. On the one side, economics and economic modelling allow for the construction of highly-mathematized objects, thus providing a quantitative description of agents and phenomena within, for instance, markets. On the other, economics is also responsible for a qualitative account of the reality it intends to describe and predict. In this instance, it should account for the behaviour of economic agents and how it may affect the context in which they act. When it comes to this twofold nature of economics and economic inquiry, most models seem unable to account for both the quantitative and qualitative side of this discipline. A different scenario seems possible within some experimental models in social economy, in which for the very nature of its activities (local rather global and tailored on specific contexts) models have to work on a smaller scale. In particular, I will show how the use of models relying on fuzzy mathematics allows for a more accurate description of the most evasive aspects concerning qualitative aspects of the contexts and phenomena described and their inherent complexity.