Cooperatives

This special issue of the International Journal of Technology Management and Sustainable Development (IJTMSD) is devoted to an unusual, and unusually successful, business phenomenon: the Mondragon group of cooperative enterprises. Its history and organizational structure, as well as other ...

The financial crisis is destroying wealth but is also a remarkable opportunity to uncover the ways by which debt can be used to regulate the economic system. This book uses four case studies of cooperatives to give an in-depth analysis on how they have braved the crisis and continued to generate wealth.
'This elegant and deeply-informed inquiry weaves together several themes, each significant in itself, even more so as their relations are developed: the deep and persistent crises of capitalism, in the current phase highly financialized, and the fundamental issue of decision-making in social and economic institutions, with special attention to the elaborate growth of cooperatives of many varieties, the forms they have taken, the problems they face, and their great promise in overcoming economic crises, social malaise, and democratic dysfunction.' - Professor Noam Chomsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA 'Capital and the Debt Trap combines a searing critique of the unstable debt- and-profit driven system that came close to final collapse in the Great Crisis with a fine portrait of the modern cooperative alternative that exists today in Mexico, Canada, France and Spain. Are these perhaps the small creatures that will survive and flourish after the great dinosaurs are gone? Let's hope so.' - James K. Galbraith, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and University of Texas at Austin 'This book is simply a masterpiece on cooperativism for the xxi century. It outstandingly demonstrates why cooperatives are more resilient to the crisis and avoid falling into the dept trap and its implacable cohort of inhuman effects. A decisive contribution not only to economic democracy but also to Democracy as a political system.' - Yves Cabannes, University College London 'This is a timely and important book which both analyses current economic turmoil and shows how the crisis may foment new and more co-operative forms of enterprise. Anyone interested in advancing the cause of participatory ownership as one means of guarding against recurrent crises should read this book.' George Irvin, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 'This book presents a thoughtful and exciting consideration of the roles cooperatives can play and should be expected to play today ... It deserves to be widely read and discussed within and across the boundaries that have long divided cooperative proponents and the general public.' Ian MacPherson, University of Victoria, Canada 'This book is a major step forward in understanding the working of co-operative economies. Its appearance could hardly have been more timely. At a point when the global financial system and the models of economic governance have been thrown into question, it shows how it is that co-operative financial systems are more crisis resistant than contemporary private banking, and how finance can be structured to service long term local and industrial growth rather than subject it to the imperative of short term profitability. More generally, the authors describe an architecture of co-operative governance that has not only been innovative and resilient but is particularly well suited to any post crisis world that is reshaped round multi stakeholder engagement.' - Robin Murray, LSE Global Governance and author of Co-operation in the Age of Google. 'This study on the current global crisis of capitalism is a surprising and fascinating analysis of the transformation that the current dominant world mode of production has gone through. The great merit of the book is to indicate the path to this change with great accuracy and richness of data. That is, the economy needs to return to the realm of the stakeholders. It is difficult to emphasize the appropriateness and importance of this work.' Paul Singer, University of Sao Paulo and Secretary of State for the Solidarity Economy of Brazil. We have been falsely made to believe that competition is the way nature and society work. However, greed and competition are dis-values imposed by corporate rule. Both nature and society work on the principles of co-operation. In Capital and the Debt Trap - Learning from Cooperatives in the Global Crisis Bruno Roelants and Claudia Sanchez Bajo show us how an economy based on co-operation can address the deep crisis we face.' - Vandana Shiva, Navdanya/Research Foundation for Science Technology & Ecology, New Delhi.

Este trabalho teve como objetivo analisar o modelo de contrato proposto pela Primato Cooperativa Agroindustrial para implementação do centro de recria, buscando apresentar possíveis lacunas que podem vir causar riscos a atividade de fomento à pecuária de leite, como por exemplo, o aumento dos custos de transação. Entende-se que o modelo de contrato está próximo do contrato relacional, proposto pela Estrutura de Governança exposta por Williamson na Teoria da Nova Economia Institucional. Por ser uma negociação que contém elementos de incertezas, lacunas e maiores prazos de transação. Conclui, ao final, por meio de hipóteses, que o modelo proposto de contrato apresenta falhas contratuais, em decorrência de cláusulas que impliquem fragilidade na negociação de acordo com o Código Civil Brasileiro

Após o advento das Leis nº 12.349/2010 e nº 12.690/2012, o Departamento de Consultoria da Advocacia Geral da União emitiu pronunciamento, segundo o qual os novos diplomas legais teriam superado o termo de acordo firmado pela própria AGU com o Ministério Público do Trabalho, nos autos da ação civil pública nº 0001082-2002-020-10-00-0, que limita a participação de cooperativas de trabalho em licitações públicas, à prestação de serviços que não demandem, pela própria natureza, execução em estado de subordinação. Nesse contexto, o presente trabalho visa a confrontar a ratio do parecer daquele Departamento, contrário não só ao mencionado acordo judicial, mas antes e, sobretudo, a todos os entendimentos, regulamentares, administrativos, doutrinários e jurisprudenciais, há muito adotados e que transpassaram, inclusive, a própria edição das referidas leis. Visa, enfim, confirmar a possibilidade de condicionamento para a sujeição das entidades cooperativadas a licitações realizadas pela Administração Pública, e, em última análise, expor o caso específico à lente do saber filológico, considerando a importância da linguagem e de seu poder de construção e/ou desconstrução do direito e da segurança jurídica.

Following the advent of Laws  12,349 / 2010 and 12,690 / 2012, the Advisory Department of the Federal Attorney General's Office issued a statement according to which the new legal instruments would have surpassed the agreement signed by the Attorney General's Office itself with the Public Labor Ministry, in the proceedings of public civil action  0001082-2002-020-10-00-0, which limits the participation of labor cooperatives in public bids, to the provision of services that do not require, by their very nature, execution in a subordinated state. In this context, the present work aims to face with the opinion of that Department, that is contrary not only to the aforementioned judicial agreement, but even the understandings, regulations, administrative, doctrine and jurisprudence, long adopted, including the refered laws. It aims, finally, to confirm the possibility of conditioning the submission of labor cooperatives in bids, and, ultimately, to expose the specific case to the lens of philological knowledge, considering the importance of language and its construction and or deconstruction of law and legal certainty.

A revised version of this paper is now published in:

Woodin, T. (2014) Co-operation, Learning and Co-operative Values.  Contemporary Issues in Education.  Routledge.

http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415725248/


"Education involves drawing out the powers of individuals to think, imagine, feel and act. In particular it is about the development of the powers of communication, debate, decision and the power to form associations between people to create organisations for the achievement of common projects. How those powers to organise are shaped through social, cultural, economic, political and legal processes, practices and procedures is critical to what kind of society results. In this sense, then, education directly addresses the question of what kind of society people want.

We explore the contribution of cooperative ideas and practices to achieve such an idea."

As companies and other organizations increasingly recognize society’s demand for greater social and environmental sustainability, university and college business schools have responded with new pedagogic approaches. Business schools have begun to offer courses in business models and business model innovation that focus not only on profit-normative goals but also on social and environmental goals. This paper describes an Experiential Workshop for university undergraduates in which the Service-Learning pedagogic approach is taken and Flourishing Business Canvas is applied as a tool for collaborative visual business modelling. In the Workshop, the students work with business model innovation for a biogas production cooperative of farmer-members in southern Sweden. The students take the role of problem-owners and problem-solvers as they co-create new business models ideas for the cooperative. The paper presents the students’ achievement of three Learning Objectives as they engage in meaningful, “real-world” simulations with a high degree of autonomy that allows them to combine their theoretical knowledge with practice. Implications for educators who wish to test the Experiential Workshop in their classrooms are proposed. The paper concludes with the suggestion that Education for Flourishing is a useful expansion of Education for Sustainable Development.

This paper was part of the special issue “Education for Sustainable Development” (https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-cleaner-production/call-for-papers/developing-sustainability-into-a-golden-thread-throughout-al) and features the Flourishing Business Canvas as the tool used for the business modelling aspect of this research.

La discusión actual sobre qué debe entenderse por economía social transita por dos
vertientes significativas. Primera, la que coliga el concepto de economía con el añadido
de comunidad y sociedad para diferenciarla de la economía pública y la economía de
mercado o del sector privado. Segunda, la que integra la economía social como un único
referente para explicar cómo desde la organización participativa y comunitaria puede
articularse y competir entre lo público y lo privado sin mezclarse ontológicamente entre
sí. El cooperativismo como parte de la economía social cumple con este segundo vector,
entretejer lo que se produce para el mercado y extender los beneficios para la
comunidad que participa en el ejercicio cooperativo, como una solución alternativa al
momento en que opera, incluso como empresa social. La Economía Social por tanto “ha
destacado el rol que juegan este tipo de organizaciones en el contexto económico, el
impacto que generan en la sociedad a partir de su capacidad de creación de capital
social y minimización de externalidades negativas del mercado”. 1
En México, el inicio
del cooperativismo fue una respuesta al desarrollo del capitalismo de fines del siglo
XIX a través de mutualidades, cajas de ahorro, sindicatos católicos y laicos, así como la
organización de cooperativas y sociedades de crédito en diferentes sectores de la
economía.2
En las décadas posteriores a la Revolución mexicana (1910–1920) las
cooperativas en el agro, la minería, la pesca y el comercio también hicieron frente al
modelo económico existente hasta que los esfuerzos se vieron frenados por la Gran
Depresión y la Segunda Guerra Mundial. En buena parte de los casos el asociacionismo

1 Recuérdese que el uso del término economía social fue una reacción intelectual a “la pura ciencia
económica dominante, una teoría económica explicativa de la realidad que separa las reglas de
funcionamiento de la economía y de la moral. Lo que se va a llamar economía social, será la
identificación y análisis de los problemas sociales y la proposición de alternativas para solucionarlos”.
Cfr. Sánchez Pachón, “La delimitación de las entidades y organizaciones de economía social en la
próxima ley reguladora del sector”, consultado en www. ciriec-revistaeconomia.es CIRIEC-ESPAÑA
Núm. 66/2009 (pp. 61-84). Marcuello Servós y Nachar Calderón, “La Sociedad Cooperativa: motivación
y coordinación. Un análisis desde las teorías económicas de la empresa y la eocnomía social” en Revesco,
N 110, 2013 (pp. 192–222).
2 Méndez Reyes, “Alemania y México”, 2010.
fue la constante. En la historia contemporánea se observa un segundo boom de la
economía social mexicana, al agotarse el llamado modelo de economía mixta o
desarrollo estabilizador (1952–1971) guiado por el Estado y sus agencias, así como un
último esfuerzo en los ajustes en la crisis de la deuda (1980-1990) y la instauración del
neoliberalismo como prerrogativa, casi única, de desarrollo económico en estas últimas
décadas.
El recuento histórico que reconstruimos en este ensayo versa sobre el
cooperativismo en el sector pesquero, entre el origen de la captura de la langosta, el
abulón y otras especies marinas por parte de particulares y extranjeros, hasta el
momento en que una cooperativa de pescadores de la península de Baja California hizo
suya esa tarea. Se trata de colocar en perspectiva uno de los ejercicios de economía
social existosos—por llamarlo de alguna manera— en la región, a diferencia de otras
cooperativas que no supieron integrar la experiencia acumulada de largo plazo ni el reto
de enfrentar los mecanismos del mercado, como las cooperativas de altamar en San
Felipe, Baja California que hemos presentado en otros momentos. Este avance de
investigación es un primer esfuerzo por rescatar desde la historia del cooperativismo en
México, a los pescadores de Baja California organizados en sociedades cooperativas de
producción pesquera, a partir de enumerar algunos casos pero privilegiar uno solo, la
Sociedad Cooperativa California de San Ignacio, S.C.L. en la parte sur de la península.
Se trata de reconstruir una experiencia aupada en la economía social que a partir de
1936 ha operado en la región y continúa en funciones de manera exitosa desde hace 80
años, a pesar de momentos de declive económico, manipulación política y agotamiento
de los recursos pesqueros. Es probable que el aumento de cooperativas se debiera a la
legislación y exclusividad en la captura de algunas especies lucrativas3
pero ninguna
cooperativa hubiese pervivido sin la organización explícita y consciente de qué se
quería para la comunidad, por lo que consideramos que se trata de una expresión de la
economía social.
La reconstrucción histórica de este ejercicio cooperativo no es definitoria, hizo
falta revisar otros archivos y repositorios, no obstante, este avance incluye algunos
fondos documentales de importancia y entrevistas directas con la segunda generación de
cooperativistas que aún viven; aunque el promedio de edad raya los 78 años conservan

3 Ramírez Sánchez, McCay, Johnson y Weisman, “Surgimiento”, 2011, pp. 71–99.
buena memoria, tanto de las fortalezas como de las debilidades del cooperativismo que
les tocó vivir en su momento. Una interrogante que quedó sin resolver fue el
agotamiento del principal recurso marino con el que cuentan actualmente, el abulón, el
cual se exporta al mercado asiático y que desde la historia ambiental merece otro
análisis. Al final lo que intentamos presentar es cómo la cooperativa de pescadores
estudiada se ha justado a los vaivenes de la economía mundial y nacional a lo largo del
tiempo, incluso articulando una más, la Sociedad Cooperativa de Producción Pesquera
Leyes de Reforma, S.C.L. que, aunque independiente de la California, tuvieron una
preocupación común, la organización de la población y las cooperativas para sumarse al
mercado, hacer frente a los ciclos económicos inestables, sortear las crisis y construir
una alternativa desde la economía social en el sector de las pesquerías de la península de
Baja California.

Drawing on an analysis of the Walloon dairy sector, this paper aims at bringing novel insights on the coexistence issue in agrifood transition studies. Whereas most studies explore the coexistence of farm models, our study focuses on value chains, in particular on cooperatives. In the Walloon Region, new dairy cooperatives emerged, as substitute or as complement to the incumbent vertically integrated dairy cooperatives. This paper focuses on the coexistence of dairy cooperative models as enabler of transition toward product diversification. Dairy cooperatives are hybrid actors: economic agents on the market on the one hand, structure of collective agency on the other hand. Williamson’s framework of New Institutional Economics acknowledges that the allocation of resources
by cooperatives depends on governance processes and on the wider institutional context in which the cooperatives evolve. Within the broader frame of the Multi-Level Perspective, this approach allows to consider the socio-technical coherence in which the cooperatives evolve, the effects of this coherence on their pathways of development, and the  complementarity of the cooperative models. This qualitative
analysis builds on semi-directed interviews with actors of the Walloon dairy sector. The results outline distinctions between the new cooperative models and mainstream dairy cooperatives in market approach, definition of milk quality, distribution of added value, governance, and interactions with partners. Both models evolve within a distinct socio-technical coherence, holding, in the case of the mainstream dairy cooperatives,
lock-ins to diversification related to the relationship with the farmer-members and the milk they produce in the industrial vertically integrated model. The new cooperative models circumvent these lock-ins through de-integration and externalization of initiatives, remuneration, and risk. They allow specific groups of actors—still related or unrelated to the mainstream dairy cooperative—to explore new market pathways in accordance with their potential, and to mutually agree on criteria qualifying milk. This research draws the picture of a possible reconfiguration of the dairy landscape toward a more diversified
ecosystem of actors and invites to consider structures of governance in collective action as a cornerstone issue, because of their significant role in terms of enablement, coexistence, and complementarity throughout the transition process.