RECONCILING THE POLITICAL, SOCIAL, AND ECONOMIC: THE STRUCTURAL CHALLENGE OF COOPERATIVES. A MULTIFUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF THREE BUSINESS AND EMPLOYMENT COOPERATIVES

Abstract

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.