Cooperatives as the "enfants terribles" of economics: Some implications for the social economy

The cooperatives are too economically oriented to be included in the non-profit sector and too socially oriented to be considered as an economic for-profit organization. These "enfants terribles" are wholly depersonalized. They represent a broader phenomenon, going beyond the dominant global economy. As such, cooperatives are seen as a model based on dual components, an economic and a social. Here lies the source of the incompatibility between the hegemonic economic paradigm and an organizational rationale claiming to be based on the co-existence of two features, the social and the economic. Therefore, this article supports the idea of non-profit economy, the cornerstone of the social economy but facing outward offering competing goods and services which can facilitate the market economy and mitigate the tendency towards oligopoly.