During the recent economic crisis, it has been widely discussed as to which policies and tools are most appropriate in order to come out from this negative period, characterized by a fall in GDP, rising unemployment and a... [ view full abstract ]
During the recent economic crisis, it has been widely discussed as to which policies and tools are most appropriate in order to come out from this negative period, characterized by a fall in GDP, rising unemployment and a worsening of social and economic exclusion. In this debate, co-operatives have received a renewed attention, as organizations capable of mobilizing citizens’ democratic participation through the direct involvement of employees, consumers and users of goods and services.
This paper focuses on a new co-operative form that has emerged in Italy in the last years: Community Co-operative. The focus on this new co-operative model can be attributed mainly to a project launched by Legacoop in 2010. In the project it is stressed that a community cooperative must pursue the explicit goal “to produce benefits for the community to which the members belong or they elect as their own […] in order to steadily influence on key aspects of the quality of social and economic life" (Legacoop, 2011, p. 9).
In the literature, community co-operatives are considered a recent phenomenon, even if the relationship with the community has always been a fundamental element of the cooperative movement (Campos, 1997; Borzaga, Depedri, Galera, 2010; Mori, 2014). Community co-operatives have arisen thanks to different actors (individual or collective) that decided to implement cooperative strategies (carrying out different activities) in order to provide new and shared solutions to emerging needs both in marginalized rural communities and urban neighborhoods struggling with severe social and economic problems (lack of services, abandoned areas, social exclusion, etc.).
The aim of this paper is two‐fold. First, to define the concept of community co-operatives, underlining their main characteristics and specificities. Second, to identify the building processes that underlie the emergence and development of these new cooperative models, and their capability to create networks between different local stakeholders and improve the living conditions of communities.
Borzaga, C., Depedri, S. & Galera, G. (2010), “L’interesse delle cooperative per la comunità”, in L. Bagnoli (ed.), La funzione sociale della cooperazione. Teorie, esperienze e prospettive, Carocci, Roma.
Campos, J.L.M. (1997), “Contributions of the Social Economy to the General Interest”, in Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, vol. 68, n. 3.
Legacoop (2011), Guida alle cooperative di comunità, Officine Cantelmo Soc. Cooperativa, Lecce.
Mori, P.A. (2014), “Community and cooperation: the evolution of cooperatives towards new models of citizens’ democratic participation in public services provision”, Euricse Working Paper, N. 63|14.
