This open access edited book brings together a number of theories under the umbrella of humanistic governance to develop a persuasive alternative perspective on governance, particularly for ...democratic organisations such as co-operatives. It examines how we can move beyond a profit-first approach to governance, into a framework that prioritises human dignity in all aspects of an operation. This book also discusses key issues for different types of cooperatives and how these might be addressed. And, finally, it addresses how cooperatives can better cope with dynamic change processes. This book will be of interest for academics working in the areas of stakeholder governance, social solidarity economy, ethical management and co-operatives.
Co-operativism and Local Development in Cuba consists of a series of pathbreaking essays on the role of co-operativism, and the new co-operatives, in the democratic transformation of Cuba and the ...government's plan to update the model.
Cooperatives serve a competitive yardstick role in markets dominated by market power such as monopsony or monopoly. This paper argues they can also serve a normative yardstick role in efforts to ...provide contextual social indicators for sustainability reporting that aims to instigate transformative change. The Statement on the Cooperative Identity, which includes cooperative values, principles, and purpose of associative economic organizing (ica.coop), can serve as a blueprint for the construction of social sustainability indicators.
The paper then addresses two issues: one, it answers the question what should cooperatives measure and why; and two, it suggests the framework for transformative indicators informed by the purpose of cooperative organizing. In particular, cooperative enterprise model contributes to fair income distribution, promotes economic democracy, de‐commodifies necessities and fictitious commodities, and contributes to community development by investing in the real economy. These impact areas ought to be measured and disclosed.
An essential introduction to the co-operative business model as a sustainable and equitable alternative to the current growth-obsessed economic paradigm.
•Co-operatives are complex enterprises with multiple goals and objectives, defined by the ICA Statement on the Co-operative Identity.•They are often conceptualized in binary terms, as both social and ...economic entities, forming paradoxes.•Duality (paradox) in co-operatives is studied at different levels: individual motivations; organizational goals; and community impacts.•Associationalism as collective action is at the core of co-operative complex nature, with complementary, instead of diverging dual features.•Co-operatives are defined as collective enterprises (collective contributions; ownership; benefit; decisionmaking and control).
Multiple roles and objectives are naturally inherent in the co-op idea, captured by the Statement on the Co-operative Identity (ICA, 1995) and thus in co-operative enterprises’ practices. This complex nature derived from the co-operative mission has been conceptualized as the dual nature, which is in the DNA of all co-operatives. However, the concept is somewhat ambiguous and a comprehensive theoretical framework is missing. Prior research has approached duality at different, and not clearly delineated levels, either as individual member motivations, organizational characteristics, or community impact, discussed in this paper. Further, we examine duality and paradox framings in co-operative enterprise research to underscore complementary features that define co-operative enterprise, and contribute an elaboration on the associative practices at the heart of these debates. Associationalism is described in this paper as the common action and responsibilities of membership regarding collective contributions, ownership, benefit, decisionmaking and control. Further, we extend the argument that co-operatives have the strongest impact when they acknowledge and take advantage of their unique organizational values and characteristics, informed by their associative foundations.
ABSTRACT This article is a result of a joint project in social economy research between a community partner-an independent school-and academic partners. The school is a democratic organization, run ...by teachers and parents. The goal of the project was to find ways to improve communication and reporting about general performance of the school as part of the school's accountability to its members. Starting from lessons of the balanced scorecard approach for non-profits, we describe the process of development of survey-based measures for the particular organization. The direction of the tool development and subsequent organizational changes were carried out in a participatory process between the school's staff, the parents, and the board. We identify the limitations and challenges of this process, and outline its successes to draw lessons for other similar democratic organizations. RÉSUMÉ Cet article est le produit d'un projet conjoint de recherche sur l'économie sociale entre un partenaire communautaire-une école privée-et des partenaires académiques. L'école est une organisation démocratique dirigée par des enseignants et des parents. Le but de ce projet était de trouver des façons d'améliorer la communication et la reddition de compte en ce qui a trait au rendement général de l'école comme faisant partie de la responsabilité de l'école envers ses membres. En commençant par des leçons sur l'approche de tableau de bord équilibré pour les organismes sans but lucratif, nous abordons le processus de l'élaboration de mesures fondées sur des enquêtes pour l'organisation particulière. L'orientation du développement d'outils et des changements organisationnels subséquents ont été déterminés lors d'un processus participatif entre le personnel de l'école, les parents et la direction. Nous établissons les limites et les défis de cette façon de procéder et en soulignons les réussites pour tirer des leçons qui serviront à d'autres organisations démocratiques comparables.
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