Reconciling the political, social, and economic: The structural challenge of cooperatives. A multifunctional analysis of three Business and Employment Cooperatives
Ballon, Justine
Reconciling the political, social, and economic: The structural challenge of cooperatives. A multifunctional analysis of three Business and Employment Cooperatives - 2025.
88
As alternative organizations, cooperatives conduct economic activities with a limited profit-making purpose. Their production not being purely commercial, how can this “beyond” be defined? This article focuses on Business and Employment Cooperatives (BECs), which bring together employee-entrepreneur members. Faced with declining public subsidies and a structurally deficit economic model, they must rethink how to align their political project with sustainable social and economic dynamics. This article examines the socio-productive models of BECs through the revisited concept of multifunctionality, taking into account all the socio-productive activities necessary for their political, economic, and social development. Three cases are examined to identify avenues for analyzing the socio-productive trade-offs that are shaped. The result is a heuristic analysis grid considering four socio-productive functions (market, public, mutualist, and community), which each cooperative combines based on its political project and socio-productive dynamics, leading to an evolving compromise shaped by a democratic process.
Reconciling the political, social, and economic: The structural challenge of cooperatives. A multifunctional analysis of three Business and Employment Cooperatives - 2025.
88
As alternative organizations, cooperatives conduct economic activities with a limited profit-making purpose. Their production not being purely commercial, how can this “beyond” be defined? This article focuses on Business and Employment Cooperatives (BECs), which bring together employee-entrepreneur members. Faced with declining public subsidies and a structurally deficit economic model, they must rethink how to align their political project with sustainable social and economic dynamics. This article examines the socio-productive models of BECs through the revisited concept of multifunctionality, taking into account all the socio-productive activities necessary for their political, economic, and social development. Three cases are examined to identify avenues for analyzing the socio-productive trade-offs that are shaped. The result is a heuristic analysis grid considering four socio-productive functions (market, public, mutualist, and community), which each cooperative combines based on its political project and socio-productive dynamics, leading to an evolving compromise shaped by a democratic process.
Réseaux sociaux