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Community and cooperation: the evolution of cooperatives towards new models of citizens democratic participation in public services provision

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  • Pier Angelo Mori

Abstract

The community cooperatives that are spreading today in many parts of the world are the arrival point of an evolutionary process which has seen the progressive shift of cooperatives focus from specific social and professional groups to society as a whole. This evolution is marked by two changes. The first was at the turn of the 19th century when there made their appearance the first community cooperatives which catered to the needs of a whole community. Among them were electric cooperatives, cooperative banks and some kinds of agricultural cooperatives. A further development relevant to the evolution of community cooperatives occurred towards the end of the last century with the enlargement of cooperatives aims to embrace society s benefit. From this process there emerge in total four categories of cooperatives which taken together constitute a complete classification of the cooperative universe. New community cooperatives are the off-springs of the old ones but the picture is rather confused. The term itself is relatively new and similar institutions are named differently at different times. Moreover, though having a few basic features in common, they differ much from one another and from the old ones. To take care of this we elaborate a concept of community cooperative consistent with its evolution and the classification of cooperatives we have identified. Basic elements of the concept are community goods, territory and citizenship, which are discussed extensively with reference to concrete cases. We then discuss in what new community cooperatives differ from old ones. The paper closes with a discussion of their future prospects.

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  • Pier Angelo Mori, 2014. "Community and cooperation: the evolution of cooperatives towards new models of citizens democratic participation in public services provision," Euricse Working Papers 1463, Euricse (European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises).
    • Handle: RePEc:trn:utwpeu:1463
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    2. Martens, Katrin, 2022. "Investigating subnational success conditions to foster renewable energy community co-operatives," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    3. María Jesús Segovia‐Vargas & I. Marta Miranda‐García & Freddy Alejandro Oquendo‐Torres, 2023. "Sustainable finance: The role of savings and credit cooperatives in Ecuador," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(3), pages 951-980, September.
    4. Carlo Borzaga & Silvia Sacchetti, 2015. "Why Social Enterprises Are Asking to Be Multi-stakeholder and Deliberative: An Explanation around the Costs of Exclusion," Euricse Working Papers 1575, Euricse (European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises).
    5. Denise Díaz de León & Omar Díaz Fragoso & Igor Rivera & Gibrán Rivera, 2021. "Cooperatives of Mexico: Their Social Benefits and Their Contribution to Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-19, April.
    6. Pier Angelo Mori, 2013. "Customer ownership of public utilities: new wine in old bottles," Journal of Entrepreneurial and Organizational Diversity, European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises, vol. 2(1), pages 54-74, August.
    7. Davide Arcidiacono, 2018. "Promises and Failures of the Cooperative Food Retail System in Italy," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(11), pages 1-15, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Community cooperatives; citizen participation; public services;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • H44 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Publicly Provided Goods: Mixed Markets
    • L33 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Comparison of Public and Private Enterprise and Nonprofit Institutions; Privatization; Contracting Out
    • P13 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Cooperative Enterprises

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