Cooperative Ownership Research Articles

William Thompson and John Stuart Mill on co-operation and the rights of women

Abstract William Thompson and, later, John Stuart Mill argued that women’s inferior position in society was a product of their environment and upbringing. As such, access to the franchise, and opportunities for education and employment would improve the welfare and position of women. Recognition of women’s reproductive roles led Thompson to argue that equality of outcome for women could not be achieved within the competitive framework and required a re-organisation of society into self-supporting co-operative communities in which women’s reproductive role would be valued and childcare and catering provided communally. While John Stuart Mill advocated access for women into all employments, he thought that a purely domestic role was consistent with women’s emancipation provided that role was freely chosen. Free choice was supported by better outside options but the bargaining power of women choosing the domestic route was not addressed by Mill. Mill supported co-operation but his favoured form involved co-operative ownership of firms operating within competitive markets. He believed that a society based on co-operation would foster favourable attitudes towards women’s emancipation and moral improvement more generally, but he saw no direct relationship between the development of co-operative enterprise and the status of women.

Discussing Sharing Investment in Vietnam

The emergence of sharing investment within the landscape of the sharing economy presents a transformative market model blending ownership and resource utilization. This research delves into the tech-driven and collaborative nature of sharing investment, drawing upon seminal works and the evolving economic terrain of Vietnam. It offers nuanced insights into the multifaceted dimensions, implications, and challenges stemming from regulatory gaps and complex responsibilities. Highlighting the necessity for an inclusive and transparent framework, the research advocates for flexible policies to harness the potential benefits of sharing investments while navigating inherent challenges. Through a thorough analysis, this study lays a foundation for future research and policy development in the dynamic realm of investment sharing in Vietnam.In addition to the foundational aspects, recent empirical findings underscore the revolutionary potential of sharing investment in Vietnam's by embracing cooperative ownership structures, technological integration, and community-centric approaches, sharing investment promises to foster financial inclusion, catalyze economic growth, and bolster societal welfare. However, realizing this potential necessitates overcoming several obstacles and establishing robust legislative frameworks. Regulatory adaptations must account for the innovative nature of sharing investments, safeguarding investors and ensuring market stability. In leveraging these strategies and capitalizing on the educated and technologically literate populace, Vietnam can harness the benefits of cooperative financial strategies, fostering equitable economic growth and societal advancement.

Assessing Technical Efficiency of Cooperative Vis-à-Vis Private Dairy Plants in Andhra Pradesh, India: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis

This study aims to determine the levels of production efficiencies and their determinants across India’s private and cooperative structures. Stochastic frontier modelling of a panel data sample comprising 14 plants (7 cooperatives and 7 private) in Andhra Pradesh for six years from 2013 to 2019 was considered. The production inefficiencies obtained are then modelled based on the ownership status and percentage of female employment to identify if these affect the variations in the scores. The results observed the presence of production inefficiencies under both structures, but the production efficiency was observed to rise over the period, that is, reducing inefficiencies. The results revealed a marginal but significant efficiency advantage of the cooperative plants over the private plants. The mean technical efficiency of all the firms was observed at 0.69, that of the cooperatives at 0.72 for and that of the private dairies at 0.66. This implies that the average efficiencies can be improved by 0.31 using the existing resources. The cooperative ownership of the plant and greater female employment rate was found to enhance production efficiency. The results can significantly impact policy design for both the state government and private entities. The observed advantage of cooperative ownership and greater female employment rates in enhancing production efficiency could guide policy decisions related to ownership structures and workforce diversity. JEL Codes: C5, C880, Q1, L2

Different pasts, contested presents and desired futures: local narratives and identities in the co-production of a shared wind energy ownership model

ABSTRACT Previously, local actors have often had a stake in renewable energy projects through cooperative ownership and other variants of community energy configurations. However, the increase in project size and necessary investments as well as policy shifts towards auctions and “local energy” have made it difficult for communities to obtain a stake in such developments, while also increasing the potential for controversies. This article investigates the construction of a shared ownership model of a utility-scale wind farm by identifying three narratives presented by local actors and exposes how these narratives position them to shape the ownership configuration of the project to their advantage. We show how local actors’ stories construct the development in the local area as business as usual, tragic degradation or potentially an epic turn-around. These different constructions of the wind power project draw on different historical developments, construct different presents and envision different futures as a result of the proposed wind power project. Furthermore, we disentangle how these constructions and different perceptions of time employed by the actor groups legitimize different ownership structures and project configurations, thus co-producing the project and the trajectory of local development. We end by arguing that such narratives related to the (il)legitimacy of renewable energy projects are important for the ability to move the renewable energy transition forward in a just manner.

Regulacja prawna stosunków własności w rolnictwie ZSRR

The article covers theoretical problems relating to the development and improvement of legal property relations in the agriculture of the Soviet Union. It has been, explained that the essence and specific qualities of the property relations in agriculture are due to the special position of agriculture as a sector of national economy. The author has analysed the state property law and pointed out that the increased share of the socialized production in the state sector of national economy, due to the specialization and concentration of the former, has been the basic trend of development of this property as well as further improvement of its legal regime.Further the author has presented the changes that affect cooperative ownership. As a result of the increased socialization of kołchoz property and the indivisibility of many kołchoz funds, the kołchoz property (co-operative) loses its present (collective) nature and becomes more similar to all national property (state property).In the final part of the article the author showed how both forms of ownership become assimilated in the Soviet agriculture and stressed that this process is stimulated by the emergence of inter-sector, agro-industrial enterprises and their amalgamations.

Black Political Economy, Solidarity Economics, and Liberation: Toward an Economy of Caring and Abundance

Combining Black political economy and solidarity economy theories and practices provides alternative models for group development based on recognizing and developing internal (to the individual and to the community) capacities and creating mechanisms that equitably produce, distribute, recycle, and multiply local expertise and capital within communities of color, especially Black, communities—creating a solidarity economy of caring community for survival (successful social reproduction), sustainability, and liberation. The history of mutual aid, cooperative ownership, and economic democracy among African Americans demonstrates how economic cooperation and solidarity economics have enabled Blacks to address human needs, generate income, and at the same time be family and community friendly, in reaction to anti-Blackness and racial economic inequality. Cooperatives enable low-income residents, women, immigrants, and people of color (who often are without any avenue to gain income or assets) to provide affordable, quality goods and services in ecologically sustainable ways and generate jobs, stabilize their communities, and accumulate some assets. The history of African American cooperative ownership demonstrates that Black Americans have been successful in creating and maintaining collective and cooperatively owned enterprises that often provided not only economic stability for members and their communities but also developed many types of human and social capital and developed community-wide well-being. I discuss how this helps us to define an economics of abundance and explore possibilities for achieving economic liberation in the twenty-first century. JEL Classification: J15, B54, P13

Czy celowe jest wprowadzanie możliwości przenoszenia spółdzielczego własnościowego prawa do lokalu na podstawie umowy o dożywocie?

The cooperative ownership right to premises is a limited right in rem. Although since 31 July 2007 it is not possible to establish new cooperative ownership rights to premises, the existence of those that have been effectively established is not limited by any time limit. Authorized persons can dispose of them freely. Due to the fact that the premises being the subject of cooperative ownership rights are not real estate from the formal and legal point of view, they cannot be the subject of agreements that are used to transfer the ownership of real estate. This means that the cooperative ownership right to the premises cannot be transferred, in particular, on the basis of an annuity agreement. The analysis carried out in this study indicates that there are no obstacles preventing a change in the law aimed at creating the possibility of disposing of cooperative ownership rights to premises on the basis of an annuity contract. Such a change will remove the systemic inconsistency resulting from the fact that the cooperative ownership right to premises may be subject to transfer on the basis of a reverse mortgage loan agreement, and cannot be subject to transfer on the basis of an annuity agreement with a similar function. Creating the possibility of disposing of cooperative ownership rights to premises on the basis of an annuity agreement should not be limited only to the introduction of a provision to the Civil Code enabling the appropriate application of the provisions on annuity to agreements the purpose and effect of which is the transfer of the cooperative ownership right to premises in exchange for a commitment by its buyer to provide the seller with life support. Achieving the above-mentioned objectives of this amendment to the Civil Code, and in particular the proper protection of the interests of persons disposing of cooperative ownership rights to premises in exchange for a lifetime maintenance obligation, also requires consideration of amendments to some other acts, such as the Act on Housing Cooperatives and the Act on Land and Mortgage Registers and Mortgage. The changes in the legal status proposed in this study may improve the ability of older people to obtain care under civil law contracts.

Are Collective Trading Organisations Necessarily Inclusive of Smallholder Farmers?: A Comparative Analysis of Farmer-led Auctions in the Javanese Chilli Market

Organising smallholder farmers into groups or co-operatives is widely promoted as a strategy to connect farmers to markets and turn them into price makers rather than price takers. This pathway usually combines co-operative organisational models, based on collective ownership and representation in internal governance, with measures to shorten the agri-food chain, shifting the ownership of intermediary sourcing, aggregating and trading functions to the group. The underlying assumption is that this improves smallholder farmers' terms of inclusion in markets. To scrutinise this assumption, our study compares two examples of farmer-led auctions facilitating trading in the chilli market in Java, Indonesia. The auctions' ownership, management and performance evolved differently: one was run by a group and the other by a family. The comparison brings nuance to the prevalent emphasis on co-operative ownership structures. By researching practices central to collective trading at the chilli supplier–trader interface, this study unravels four dimensions—ownership, voice, reward and risk—capturing smallholder chilli farmers' terms of inclusion in both the auctions and the market. Our comparative analysis suggests that shared ownership and control of the trading function, a central feature of co-operative models, does not necessarily ensure favourable terms of inclusion for smallholder farmers with little capacity to take risks. The capacity to reconfigure the terms of market inclusion for vulnerable smallholder farmers involves direct payment modalities and risk taking. A collectively owned trading organisation does not necessarily imply an inclusive business concept when the organisation cannot acquire sufficient working capital to pay its suppliers.

The impact of housing cooperative bankruptcy on the status of persons entitled under ownership rights to premises. Selected comments on a change in the Supreme Court’s position

The article presents an extremely important shift in the judicature by Poland’s Supreme Court as regards the assessment of the consequences of the transformation of the cooperative ownership right to a residential unit into the right of independent ownership of a residential unit in the wake of the housing cooperative’s bankruptcy proceedings. Originally, the Supreme Court held that a mortgage that encumbered the cooperative's real estate at the time of the transformation encumbers ex lege the resulting right of the independent ownership of a residential unit. Not until 2019 did the Supreme Court abandon this controversial position, and the ultimate change in its judicature is supported with a wide array of critical underlying motives. The author approves of the recently adopted judicial trajectory, yet with a proviso that the resolution of problems it pertains to be not left to the judicature only, as it requires the definitive intervention of the legislator.

What is the value of peer-to-peer energy trading? A discrete choice experiment with residential electricity users in Colombia

Peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading is the electricity exchange between end-users with distributed energy resources, mainly photovoltaic panels. In P2P exchanges, electricity supply options can be differentiated by new energy attributes traced with smart meters and digital applications. Given the new range of supply options, energy users' preferences are crucial for designing P2P energy trading business models that engage consumers and advance the energy transition. This work identifies the preferences of a Colombian energy users' segment towards energy attributes in P2P trading. Contributing to a substantial evidence gap in the application of P2P energy trading in Latin America, we conducted a choice experiment with 1101 residential energy end-users in the Aburrá Valley (Medellín, Colombia). We evaluated the following energy attributes: generation source, ownership, location, and destination of profits. The results confirm a differentiated valuation of energy attributes among respondents across population segments. The perceived value of each attribute is represented as marginal willingness-to-pay over the usual energy bill—calculated by analysing choice data with a Mixed Logit Model. The average respondent is willing to pay the most for getting 100 % solar power, followed by a power supply where generation profits go to a social cause. Next in order of importance are energy from cooperative ownership, regional location, and neighbourhood location. Respondents would be willing to pay less for energy owned by an anonymous individual. This article contributes to understanding end-users' values around P2P energy trading and unveiling a potential market segment and preference structure. The results intend to pave the way for further research and the development of P2P energy models, especially in the Global South.

On the (Non)Institutional Disclosure of Urban Commons: Evidence, Practices and Challenges From the Netherlands and Belgium

The 2008 economic crisis has opened the door to new strategies for managing urban resources. In fact, the interest in urban commons (UC) has (re)surfaced both within and outside academia. While literature accounting for existing experiences is growing; UC as a practice begs for further systematization concerning the needed negotiation between institutional recognition and informal self-organization. This is particularly true for temporary urbanism, a strategy for the social repurposing of temporarily unused buildings, whose precarious nature has been deemed to represent just a fixing to the neoliberal logic. In this regard, a non-institutional perspective can help shed light on citymaking as a composite practice in which both institutional and non-institutional actors not only coexist but presuppose each other. In this paper, we explore this issue by focusing on two non-profit organizations working in the Rotterdam and Brussels's housing market: Stad in de Maak and Communa. Through in-depth interviews with the founders and core members of these organizations, as well as with participants to their projects, we show how SidM and Communa operate as intermediaries in the housing sector, filling the gaps left by the market and public actors. Most importantly, our research questions the extent to which the enacting of commoning practices by these organizations can become a pillar of citymaking, configuring an iterative disclosure and (collective) reclosure of urban resources. Evidence shows that, while enacting temporary urbanism differently, both organizations strive for social cooperative ownership of spaces for consolidating their presence in the cities.

Why Do Planners Overlook Manufactured Housing and Resident-Owned Communities as Sources of Affordable Housing and Climate Transformation?

More Americans live in manufactured housing than in public and federally subsidized rental housing combined. Of the nearly 40,000 U.S. manufactured housing communities (MHCs), more than 1,000 are resident-owned communities (ROCs), a form of cooperative ownership. Yet planning research continues to neglect MHCs and ROCs, raising questions of classism and cultural bias. We address five common biases against MHCs and argue ROCs in particular deserve greater attention because they enable low-income people to improve their housing security in the face of financial and environmental vulnerabilities. Lessons from these efforts can help other alternative and collective housing providers do the same.

Resident-Owned Resilience: Can Cooperative Land Ownership Enable Transformative Climate Adaptation for Manufactured Housing Communities?

Residents of manufactured housing communities (MHCs) are disproportionately vulnerable to both hazards and displacement. The cooperative ownership model of resident-owned communities (ROCs) pioneered by ROC USA helps MHC residents resist displacement, but little research assesses how cooperative tenure impacts hazard vulnerability. To fill this gap, we conduct a spatial analysis of 234 ROC USA sites; analyze the co-op conversion process; and interview ROC USA staff, technical assistance providers, and resident co-op leaders. Although ROC USA communities, like other MHCs, face elevated exposure and sensitivity to hazards, we find that ROC USA’s model supports communities’ adaptive capacity by increasing access to financial resources, bridging formal and informal knowledge and skills, and improving social and institutional capacity. This networked cooperative model represents a scalable form of transformative adaptation by enabling low-income communities to address the underlying causes of uneven hazard vulnerabilities that are intensifying under climate change. We close with public policy and programmatic recommendations to enhance and expand this model.

Cooperative Ownership as a Health Justice Intervention: A Promising Strategy to Advance Health Equity Through the U.S. Childcare System.

In their article "The Civil Rights of Health," Harris and Pamukcu offer a framework connecting civil rights law to unjust health disparities with the aims of creating broader awareness of subordination as a root cause of health inequities and inviting policymakers to create new legal tools for dismantling it. They close with a call to action. Here, we take up their call and propose cooperative enterprises as a health justice intervention. To illustrate this conceptualization, we focus on childcare as a system with robust connections to social, economic, and health equity for children, workers, and families.

Landowner Acceptance of Wind Turbines on Their Land: Insights from a Factorial Survey Experiment

This study uses data from a vignette experiment (n = 401) of large-scale agricultural landowners in western Canada to quantify attributes that enhance acceptance of wind farms on their land or in their municipality. The analysis addresses the role of community relationships and procedural fairness in the development of wind power. Random effects models indicate that landowners are more accepting of wind power if such projects include local or cooperative ownership, compensation payments to neighboring landowners, and community involvement in the development process. Results suggest that perceived injustices could be lessened if fairness considerations extended beyond monetary gain.

Re-Imagining Localism and Food Justice: Co-Op Cincy and the Union Cooperative Movement

Co-op Cincy is an incubator of worker- and community-owned cooperatives, including the farm and food hub Our Harvest. The incubator is part of the innovative1worker1vote.orgnetwork of unionized worker cooperatives stemming from a partnership between the Spanish Mondragon Cooperatives and the United States Steelworkers. This Community Case Study examines Co-Op Cincy’s food sector organizing as an example of resistance to the industrial, corporate food system. Their hybrid and experimental approach creatively re-imagines both cooperative ownership and localist food systems. Whereas some local efforts fail to address questions of social justice or drift from social justice missions, this essay describes how Co-Op Cincy and Our Harvest 1) define their social justice goals in pursuit of locally rooted ownership, 2) raise consciousness about the connections among food systems and racial and class disparities as well as the need for sustainability, solidarity, and democratic ownership, and 3) embody these commitments in everyday organizing. Their experimentation lends insights into potential paths to create a more equitable food system and a more just economy.

Assessing the value of cooperative membership: A case of dairy marketing in the United States

• Dominance of cooperatives in some industries signals provision of value to members. • Little is known about the monetary value of cooperative ownership and control rights. • A discrete choice experiment to US dairy farmers reveals significant ownership value. • Changing values across heterogeneous members informs improved governance practices. The existence of cooperative organizations in today’s business environment, particularly in agriculture, signals their continued ability to provide value to their member owners. However, due largely to data limitations, we know very little about the monetary value of ownership held by members and how value changes across members of differing characteristics. Through a discrete choice experiment with more than 200 dairy farmers in the United States, we examine these issues explicitly for dairy marketing cooperatives that purchase their members’ milk and process it into finished dairy products. Results suggest that dairy farmers, on aggregate, are willing to accept lower per hundredweight compensation, 2.3% of the average milk price, to be cooperative members relative to selling to independent handlers. Results also suggest dairy farmers actively consider the industry wide impacts within pricing offers on preferences for other milk pricing attributes. The inclusion of demographic covariates highlights preferences important to understanding heterogeneous member interests and, thus, informing improved cooperative governance strategies and board decision making to address them.

Danish farmer cooperatives

The Danish farmer-owned cooperatives started back in the 1880s. The overall aim was to ensure farmers’ market power and market access in the marketing chain. Since then, cooperatives have emerged in most major agricultural and food industries. In certain industries, the market shares of cooperatives are large and dominant. In other sectors, market shares are smaller, and in some sectors, cooperative ownership has completely ceased.
 A number of prerequisites have been crucial for the significant development of the Danish farmer cooperative industry: A bottom-up approach has been important, so that farmers themselves have driven the development and have had strong incentives to strengthen the cooperative model. A certain level of social capital, a human cohesion, a certain level of education as well as a certain degree of trust and access to infrastructure have also been important factors.
 Today, the development and importance of cooperatives is recognized as a key driver behind the strong international competitiveness of the agricultural and food sectors in Denmark.
 The purpose of the article is thus to describe and analyze the development, the significance and the underlying drivers of the farmer-owned cooperatives. Based on literature studies, case studies and interviews, experiences are summarized and possible lessons are presented. Opportunities and barriers to transferring Danish cooperative experiences to other countries are analyzed and evaluated, and a number of recommendations are presented.
 Opportunities and barriers to transferring Danish cooperative experiences to other countries are analyzed and evaluated. The results in terms of market access etc. meet the needs of farmers in many less developed countries. However, a number of barriers are identified, and the cooperative model must be adapted to the specific circumstances in individual countries.

Psychological ownership of a team of change agents during second-order change in schools and its implications for school culture

PurposeTaking ownership is considered vital for sustaining change in organizations, particularly when second-order changes are the goal. Yet, few studies explored psychological ownership of change agents in educational organizations. Moreover, no knowledge exists on how agents' individual psychological ownership augments psychological ownership in schools and on how collective psychological ownership of change relates to school culture. The present study aims to address these two lacunae.Design/methodology/approachA case study method was adopted to investigate the psychological ownership of teams of change agents in schools. Six Israeli secondary state religious schools adopting a new liberal curricular program were studied. Thirty one interviews were conducted with principals, program coordinators, mid-level teacher leaders and teachers who were active change agents in the promotion of the program. The interviews were complemented by quantitative data on students' perceptions of school discipline and tolerance of diversity based on the national school culture survey.FindingsThe analyses revealed the prevalence of three types of psychological ownership in the sample of schools. The analyses also showed how key components of psychological ownership, i.e. responsibility and territoriality in relation to change manifest in the schools that were explored. Institution-level analysis shed light on the different effects psychological ownership of the change team had on sharing within the faculty. In addition, analyses showed how the scope of agreement between two key change agents, the program initiator and the principal, on psychological ownership affected various psychological ownership aspects of the team. Last, the analysis shows that two types of collective psychological ownership emerged in the course of a liberal school change, and that types were differently related to school outcomes.Originality/valueThe study offers an innovative typology of collective psychological ownership during second-order change in schools, mapping two ideal types: cooperative and fragmented collective psychological ownership. The new types provide a better understanding of the dynamic of collective psychological ownership and its outcomes in organizations in general and schools in particular.

Property law in Poland

The article discusses the basic issues of Polish property law. In particular, it briefly addresses all types of rights in rem, i. e., ownership, perpetual usufruct, usufruct, easements (servitudes), pledge, co-operative ownership right of real estate, and mortgages. Emphasis is given to the pluralism of the sources of property law in Poland, on the one hand, and the presence of the numerus clausus principle in it, on the other hand. The difference between possession as a factual state and a real right is highlighted. The objective tendency to split the single concept of ownership into various forms of this right, which are meaningfully far apart from each other is described. It is noted that there is a clear differentiation in Polish law between binding contracts and causal dispositive transactions, as well as the assumption of transactions with a double effect (both binding and dispositive), which turns the system of transfer of real estate ownership into a consensual one. At the same time, attention is drawn to the fact that the ownership right passes to the acquirer as a result of the conclusion of the contract even before the corresponding registration of the transfer of title in the public register, which, thus, has a declarative character. Attention is also given to serious legal restrictions on the acquisition of real estate by foreigners. Furthermore, the article discusses the general trends in the development of Polish property law, inter alia digitization of land and mortgage registers, adjusting the system of mortgage lending to the needs of a developed market economy, regulation of the rapidly expanding housing market, as well as increasing restrictions on real estate trading and regulation of legal titles to real estate on which transmission facilities are located.