Zur Lage der Genossenschaften – tatsächliche Renaissance oder Wunschdenken?

Can 2012, the UN Year of the Cooperative, be said to be a Renaissance of the cooperative? A wide variety of new start-ups beyond the traditional business areas in the housing industry and in the finance sector suggest this theory. Does this automatically mean that a trend towards alternative forms of economy can be identified, which can be understood as a rejection of the traditional capitalist mainstream? The paper first organizes the multitude of terminology to be found in the fields of cooperatives, welfare economy and solidarity economy. Then next provides an overview of the extent of start-ups in the sector of cooperative-structured businesses. Clearly the positive trend must be qualified through the comparison with other business forms. Based on branch-specific and currently available information on the motives leading to cooperative industries, the authors develop a better empirically-based understanding of the potential for a cooperatively-decentralised and democratic alternative economy. The paper closes by naming the research desiderata and connects to the current developing debate on economic democracy.