Investor Presentaiton
Workers cooperatives. These are self managed coops by those who work in them, advancing
the capital which is needed. This type of coop has received a very large attention by the
economic literature, starting with John Stuart Mill, because they are democratically run and
contrast directly the capitalist form of enterprise. Workers coops are however today not so
diffused in industry, but in services: transportation (taxis, lorries, buses), catering, facility
management, logistics, management of cultural resorts and theatres, media, tourism,
professional firms, social services.
Social cooperatives (or community coops). It has taken a long time for this type of coop which
delivers personal services to external clients to be officially recognized by ICA. Only in 1995 ICA
added a 7th principle of external mutuality to the already existing 6 cooperative principles. They
remain a special type of coop, combining workers and users of social services in a
multistakeholder board and availing themselves also of part time voluntary workers.
I will now proceed to highlight the Emilia-Romagna case.View entire presentation