Who counts in co-operatives, and how? In this paper empirical results are presented from recent quantitative and qualitative studies on Belgian co-operatives in which questions about who counts in co-operatives and how were treated (Develtere, Meireman & Raymaekers, 2005; Dujardin, Mertens & Van...

The paper reveals a relevant dimension of social economy in Europe: cooperatives. Like many other types of enterprise, cooperatives face the challenge of finding the most efficient means to distribute insufficient resources. But contrasting most other enterprises, cooperatives also need to seek...

This paper investigates the motivation behind economic behaviour in the cooperative credit movement, and some of the inherent problems. In particular, the following hypotheses are analysed: the possibility of maintaining the principles of reciprocity and participation in the case of rapid growth...

Which is the fundamental contradiction of capitalism: the capital-labor polarity or the contrast between socialized production and private appropriation? Those looking on the capital-labor polarity as the main contradiction will argue that socialism arises when the passage from a system...

An analysis of Marx’s alienation theory is the starting point for establishing if alienation would actually be cancelled in a system of self-managed firms. As Marx held that alienation comes at various degrees and is strongest in capitalistic systems with hired labor, the author argues...

The author’s point is that the greatest advantage of a democratic firm system is a major impulse to political democracy. The idea that economic democracy furthers political democracy will sound fairly obvious not only to students of historical materialism, but also to anyone believing that...

“El presente estudio tiene como objetivo evaluar el papel de las cooperativas en Colombia desde el punto de vista económico y social. Se busca dimensionar el aporte socio-económico del cooperativismo, identificar los determinantes del sector y evaluar los aspectos que constituyen sus...

El presente artículo aborda la perspectiva administrativa de la economía solidaria con base en autores queproponen un modelo de gestión acorde con sus características, tales como Henri Fayol, Max Weber, Elton Mayo, Fritz Roethlisberger, Herbert Simon, Chester Barnard, McGregor, Maslow,...

The organic market has been increasing in the past couple of years and it is still expected to do so. However, even though the prices are higher on the organic market, farmers do not always manage to benefit from these better prices. Romania is a country with a high potential for organic...

The organic market has been increasing in the past couple of years and it is still expected to do so. However, even though the prices are higher on the organic market, farmers do not always manage to benefit from these better prices. Romania is a country with a high potential for organic...