In their study, Ronald Hartz (TU Ilmenau), Markus Tümpel (TU Chemnitz), Melanie Hühn (TU Chemnitz) and Irma Rybnikova (Hamm-Lippstadt University) explore the different patterns of participation in cooperatives navigating between between hierarchy and democracy.
The study was published in the journal Economic and Industrial Democracy (https://journals.sagepub.com/home/eid).
Abstract
Cooperatives are seen as the bedrock of democratic control and an alternative to capitalist enterprises but also as sites of ‘degeneration’ of democratic values and hopes. In this article, the authors conceptualize that cooperatives are a prime example of a paradoxical organization, which must deal with the organizing paradox of democracy and hierarchy. Based on a multiple case study of 14 cooperatives in Germany, the authors unfold four different ways of handling this organizing paradox, ranging from upholding a grassroots democracy to seemingly uncontested forms of autocracy. Their typology demonstrates that participatory practices are not determined by the size of the cooperative or the sector in which it operates. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of participation and democracy as sensemaking devices, which fosters reflections on the organizing paradox and its handling and subsequently on the promises and pitfalls of cooperatives as ‘imperfect democracy’.
Link to the publication (open access): https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0143831X231213490