In Chile the cooperative movement has a long history: indeed, cooperatives started to emerge after the independence, but had their first legal recognition only in 1924. In the period between 1925 and 1963, the state created a... [ view full abstract ]
In Chile the cooperative movement has a long history: indeed, cooperatives started to emerge after the independence, but had their first legal recognition only in 1924. In the period between 1925 and 1963, the state created a Department on Mutuals and Cooperative, belonging to the Ministry of Work and Social Security. This department supported the creation of cooperatives in several sectors: agriculture, drinking water, housing, electricity. The number of cooperatives grew constantly, and their action expanded towards new and differentiated sectors of activity, such as worker, housing, and users cooperatives. However, the military coup of 1973 marked the breakdown of all civil society movements and organisations, as well as the repression of individual freedoms. During the dictatorship, cooperatives and all civil society organisations suffered their worst period, being also affected by the neoliberal economic system that intervened on their internal structure. With the restoration of democracy, civil society and social economy organisations were restored in order to address societal needs. However, the national constitution is still the same that was inherited from the military regime, strongly characterised in neoliberal terms. The social and solidarity economy sector in the Chilean context has been developed within a framework of political and economic transformation, where the government has changed its role, from a welfare model (‘modelo asistencialista’) to a neoliberal model where the satisfaction of the societal needs is left to the private sector (‘modelo subsidiario’).
In this framework, next to large traditional cooperatives, active mainly in the agricultural sector, but engaged also in water provision, fishery, and other activities, some novel experiences are emerging. This paper focuses on a sample of ten “new cooperatives” recently constituted in Chile, and, based on a qualitative study carried out at the end of 2015, analyzes the enabling factors that have favoured their emergence, as well as their main characteristics, membership, and activities performed, in order to highlight the differences they hold with respect to the traditional cooperatives, i.e. the links they hold with the students’ movement of 2011, their community orientation, their practices of
horizontalized labour processes and decision-making structures, their social and ethical commitment.
