Member participation and democratic governance in cooperatives.

This PhD research project on “member participation and democratic governance in cooperatives” is investigating individual members’ motivations next to organizational drivers of inclusive participation and democratic decision-making in cooperatives.

Both these intertwined elements are contributing to the success or failure of a cooperative enterprise. As member-owned and member-controlled organizations, cooperatives are claimed to be built upon social values such as solidarity and trust. These fundaments are thought to play a major role in fulfilling the cooperative’s mission (either benefiting a particular group, i.e. producers, consumers, workers or service-users – or working towards providing solutions for the needs of the whole local community). Furthermore, through enhanced solidarity and trust, cooperatives might be equipped to face crises in a more resilient way, by including their stakeholders in decision-making and focusing on sustainable, long-term solutions rather than quick financial gains.

However, besides their fundament of social and community benefits, cooperatives are hybrid organizations who are susceptible  to market pressures. Economic failure results not only from  financial difficulties, but can also be a consequence of fading engagement levels of the members due to lack of transparency and diminishing opportunities for participation, for example in times of upscaling or growth.

Particularly in those newly emerging cooperatives where multiple stakeholders are working together for the benefit of their local community, and whose member base therefore consists of a heterogeneous group of owners, investors, service-users, suppliers and workers – the cooperative  dilemma between economic survival and participation and solidarity, both between members and towards the local community, remains a tough one.

Economic viability of coöperatives has been studied in various ways, whereas the social factor remains underexplored. Hence, within this PhD research project, a combination of qualitative and quantitative studies aims to identify patterns of solidarity, engagement, trust and empowerment as crucial elements of inclusive member participation within cooperatives:

1) Firstly, an empirical qualitative paper will be developed to map the manifestation of member engagement in cooperatives operating within local food networks in Flanders (Belgium) specifically during and after government measures following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe (March until autumn 2020). This all-encompassing health, societal and economic crisis is expected to have a magnifying effect on existing and shifting patterns of solidarity of members with their cooperatives. Consequently, we will investigate these patterns by comparing reactions to this challenge within different types of cooperatives active in Flemish agriculture and food supply: a) agricultural producer cooperatives, b) food retail consumer cooperatives and c) recently emerging multi-stakeholder cooperatives.The latter type, also known as “solidarity cooperatives” or “community social enterprises”, could be considered an ‘extreme’ case due to potentially conflicting interests among their heterogenous groups of members. The nascent literature on solidarity and multi-stakeholder cooperatives together with empirical evidence from in-depth interviews and secondary data collection of several cases within each type of agricultural/food cooperative will lead us to develop an outline of additional, alternative patterns of enhancing solidarity and democratic decision-making in cooperatives.

2) Next, in preparation of a second, quantitative paper, a thorough literature study will be carried out to develop a general typology of 1) organizational types and ‘culture’ of cooperatives and 2) members’ motivations (both individualistic and collectivistic drivers) to participate in a cooperative.This typology will serve as a foundation to carry out a broad survey of members within at least 30 Belgian cooperatives, aiming to explore the extent of member participation in cooperatives. Considering the nested structure of the collected data (i.e. non-hierarchical, multiple membership models), multi-level analysis will be carried out to identify the relationship between various predictors situated both within and between cooperatives, to explain the extent of member participation:

a) Level-1: both individual characteristics (e.g. gender, age, SES, membership in other cooperatives,…) and personal drivers (individualistic motivations, e.g. financial benefits; as well as collectivistic motivations, e.g., social/community benefits, alignment of individual values with cooperative’s mission,…)

b) Level-2: organizational features (e.g. size, age, sector, type, organizational culture and participation opportunities,…)

Additionally, we aim to study the dilemma between commitment and scale of cooperatives: Is organizational size and age negatively related to member participation, i.e. do members of growing cooperatives lessen their participation efforts?

3) Lastly, a thorough empirical qualitative paper will focus specifically on the integration of socially disadvantaged groups in the governance of cooperatives. Using a broad definition of vulnerable groups, we include financially, physically, mentally, socio-culturally,  educationally and economically disadvantaged groups in our study. We will investigate the process of empowerment and its elements possibly enabling these user-members to participate in the cooperative. By carrying out comparative case studies of Flemish social housing cooperatives, we will gather data through in-depth interviews, non-participant observation of tenant gatherings, board meetings and general assemblies, as well as secondary sources. Subsequently, we will accumulate and compare innovative possibilities to include disadvantaged groups as fully integrated members, identifying potentials and challenges with regard to participatory governance of cooperatives.