Cooperatives: A Historical and Theoretical Perspective

The history of cooperatives is often presented in two phases: first, as an immature initial phase characterized by failed utopian attempts, followed by a mature one, in which a more established status was obtained, allowing a progressive development. This narrative is too linear and evolutionist. So, I would like to suggest another history, influenced by Walter Benjamin’s (1940) thesis, which is more attentive to discontinuities and invisible continuities. The international perspective taken here is absolutely not exhaustive: it includes Europe, North America, and South America, but not Africa, Asia, and Oceania, where there are many relevant experiences. So, the objective is only to participate in the formulation of new directions for research, taking into account a longer history, as well as a lot of emerging developments at the end of the 20^th century and the beginning of the 21^st. To do this, the text is divided into four parts: the first relocates the birth of the cooperative impulse in a multi-dimensional associationalism; the second recalls the forms of the autonomization and integration of cooperatives; the third underlines how new waves of cooperatives want to assume both transformative and reparative roles; and the fourth examines how the renewal of cooperative practices adds an impulse to the reframing of theoretical questions