Furbish or perish: Italian social cooperatives at a crossroads

Abstract

Although the public debate tends to privilege investor-owned organisations, alternative forms of organisation are mushrooming at the borders of the capitalist economy. In this work, we contribute to the debate on alternative economies by analysing a specific form of worker-owned organisations which originated in Italy in the 1970s and was recognised by Italian legislation in the 1990s: the social cooperative. By drawing on data gathered over 3 years of participant observation, this article explores the tensions and contradictions generated by the rapid growth of an Italian social cooperative focused on waste recovery and its preparation for reuse. We show how social cooperatives might be able to reconcile their commercial success with their founding principles of equality and democratic management. This article contributes to the debate on the ‘regeneration thesis’ by providing new insights into the factors and drivers that force social cooperatives to scale up and to engage in competition with mainstream competitors, the internal conflicts and solutions that emerge in this process and the external alliances that social cooperatives can leverage to prosper and flourish.

The discourse of eco-innovation in the European Union: An analysis of the Eco-Innovation Action Plan and Horizon 2020

“…After the fall of the Berlin wall and the redefinition of the European and global political scenarios, a Eurocentric "end of history" seemed to crown neoliberalism as "the only alternative" (Harvey, 2007). However, the recent economic crises, coupled with social inequality and environmental degradation, has shaken the neoliberal paradigm and paved the way for a multitude of alternatives to flourish (Escobar, 2015;Pansera and Rizzi, 2018). Social enterprises, cooperatives and other civil society organisations have displayed great resilience to the crises and are blooming throughout Europe.…”

Platforms, Scales and Networks: Meshing a Local Sustainable Sharing Economy

“…Yet, Martin et al (2015) note pressure to commercialize on voluntary/not-for-profit sharing-based organizations, not least because innovation funders assume 'all innovators within the sharing economy would be for-profit organisations seeking to establish a financially sustainable business model ' (2015, p. 246). It is possible, but challenging, to commercialize without compromising values (Pansera and Rizzi 2018).…”

“…Everyone, including founders, was in it together. An overtly commercial organization is likely to have struggled to inspire so much voluntary engagement; it is hard (though not impossible) to stay true to such social motivation in turning for-profit (Pansera and Rizzi 2018).…”

Innovation without growth: Frameworks for understanding technological change in a post-growth era

“…Social Cooperatives are worker-owned organizations that emerged in Italy in the 1970s and were recognised by Italian legislation in the 1990s (Pansera and Rizzi, 2020). Nevertheless, similar organizational forms are present in many European countries (Parker et al, 2014).…”

“…According to Poledrini (2014), the social purpose of Social Cooperatives is to satisfy the community's general interest in human welfare and social integration by adopting a multi-stakeholder governance which includes employees, volunteer workers, but also sponsors and beneficiaries. Pansera and Rizzi (2020) have shown how Social Cooperatives are able to innovate to co-exist with capitalist competitors in the field of recycling, retails and social care. What's interesting in these cases is the fact that these organisations do not aspire to grow or scale up their operations, but they rather point at replicating their model in other sectors and other geographical areas.…”