Learning from Cooperatives in the Global Crisis (original) (raw)

Review of Tapas Dash (ed.), Cooperatives in the Global Economy (2021)

Capital & Class, 2023

One of the most unfortunate results of neoliberalism, capitalist culture and our global economy at large is the marginalization of alternative voices, spaces and socioeconomic movements. This is particularly true with regard to cooperatives and the cooperative movement. The (modern) cooperative movement generally began in the early 1800s as an alternative to industrial organization, on one hand, and as an alternative to radical political revolution on the other. 1 Unlike capitalist firms, cooperatives are (1) owned and (2) democratically managed by their members (e.g. clients, workers, producers, etc.), all of which decentralizes power and redistributes resources. They are, indeed, a form of socialism (a term apparently coined in The Cooperative Magazine in 1827). But despite the fact that today, over 1 billion people (about 12% of the human population) are members of a cooperative, they are continually sidelined and stereotyped as 'niche', 'hippie' or just incapable of addressing today's pressing social and economic concerns. Cooperatives are also criticized by the left (for cooperating with market, price, and legal structures, not challenging larger political hegemony, etc.) 2 as well as by the right (for countering big capital, replacing profit-maximization with human goals and socializing/democratizing the workplace). Perhaps this is unfortunate given how much cooperatives have accomplished for so many over nearly two centuries, and for how promising they are for the 21st century-where even the United Nations declared 2012 the 'International Year of Cooperatives', and popular Marxist economists like Richard Wolff define socialism in terms of worker cooperatives (Wolff 2019). Cooperatives in the Global Economy is a much-needed series of essays that demonstrate the concrete realities of cooperative economics across the globe. After a foundational chapter on the meaning of cooperative enterprise and its distinction among the endless models and forms of economic activity, the rest of the book essentially looks at

Cooperatives in a Global Economy: Key Economic Issues, Recent Trends, and Potential for Development

In this paper, we examine major trends and potential for cooperatives in the context of four prominent socioeconomic issues: the lack of jobs, economic and social inequality, educational mobility, and the priority need for innovations. We present recent data on the amount and types of job creation in cooperatives. We consider coops in light of the recent financial and economic crises. Finally, we offer some observations on cooperatives and innovation, and some perspectives on the outlook going forward.

Cooperatives: Orientations and Trajectories

With an estimated membership of 4.5 million and a modest but growing economic clout, the cooperative sector in the Philippines has come of age to be an important actor in Philippine politics. A political role is not inconsistent with cooperative values and principles. At the practical level, cooperatives are intimately interconnected as they are regulated by the same laws and beset by common issues and problems. They have a natural and conservative basis of commonality -- the practice and promotion of self help and cooperation -- that provides them with a a visionary and conscientizing framework. Despite this common identity, not all cooperatives and their members consider themselves as belonging to the "cooperative movement." There is nothing in cooperativism that limits what co-ops can do in the political arena. They can opt to participate in local legislative bodies, compete in the party-list system of representation in Congress, coalesce with national parties, or just support pro-coop candidates. Whatever the options may be taken, the time for a distinct cooperative political movement has ripened as coops can no longer remain as mere bystanders or spectators in politics.

Cooperatives' social responsibility in crisis time: how should they behave?

REVESCO. Revista de Estudios Cooperativos, 2016

La Responsabilidad social proactiva (RSP) juega un papel relevante en la construcción de la ventaja competitiva y en el éxito organizativo de las cooperativas, organizaciones basadas en principios cooperativos. El desarrollo de la RSP es especialmente complicado en los períodos de recesión. Este artículo examina cómo impactan las crisis económicas en las cooperativas a distintos niveles y pretende identificar cómo la RSP puede recuperarse. Para ahondar en el comportamiento organizativo, se ha empleado el enfoque de estudio de caso aplicado a tres cooperativas industriales situadas en el País Vasco (España).El artículo identifica tres fuentes de barreras de la RSP en el contexto de las cooperativas y propone dos condiciones para el desarrollo de la RSP. La originalidad del artículo radica en que amplía la investigación en la responsabilidad de las cooperativas durante los períodos de crisis, examina la “caja negra” de las cooperativas para detectar problemas que dañan su RSP y propon...

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT

2024

Cooperatives have spread across virtually all continents. Today, the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) recognises over 3 million cooperatives with 1 billion cooperative members or about 12% of the human population and serving many more members of the public, collectively owning trillions in assets. This handbook provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject and the current state of affairs with regard to the study of cooperation in the economy generally and of the cooperative and related sectors particularly. It highlights the essential issues and debates; provides a future research agenda, outlining the distinctions and similarities between individual and (inter)organisational cooperation; and explores the connections of cooperative economics and management to fundamental ethical principles. This book examines coopetition and the similarities and differences between competitive economics and cooperative economics, identifying to what extent and how cooperative economics and management are more capable of addressing the problems of global neoliberalism, such as ecological collapse, wealth inequity, value capture, and distribution, including via online platforms and social/relational problems. This book offers a variety of new research and theory-building from various disciplines, particularly focusing on the fields of economics and management but extending beyond these disciplines to domains such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, and political science. It will become the standard reference work for not only a broad and large audience of scholars, researchers, and students but also interested professionals, policymakers, regulators, and cooperators in the field wishing to orient themselves in a global, rapidly developing movement and field of study with reference to issues of producing and allocating resources and focusing on the impact of cooperation on issues like risk, trust, the development of preferences, institutional governance, networks, and inequity.