Emilia-Romagna is a region in Italy, north of Tuscany. I have written about its capital, Bologna, before.
About a third of the gross domestic product of Emilia-Romagna is produced by co-operatives. About two thirds of those who reside in Emilia-Romagna participate in co-ops in some ways. (See this article from John Duda.) Apparently, co-ops in Italy go back to the nineteenth century, surviving through the fascists in the twentieth century.
Article 45 of the 1947 Italian constitution promotes co-ops. It states:
The Republic recognises the social function of co-operation of a mutually supportive, non-speculative nature. The law promotes and encourages co- operation through appropriate means and ensures its character and purposes through appropriate checks.
The law safeguards and promotes the handicrafts.
A capability for a worker to take unemployment benefits at once to set up a co-op is one of the provisions of the 1985 Macora law.
A society with a large co-operative segment will have related institutions. Co-ops will market to each other. Scholars, such as Vera Zamagni at the University of Bologna, will study them. Competition among co-ops might be less cut-throat. The study of management and administration at academic institutions will have curriculum supporting co-ops. Mutual banks might be set up to loan to co-ops, and other financial institutions will have more practice in making such loans. Co-ops might set up institutes to perform research into processes and products improving their technology.
The 1986 book, The Second Industrial Divide: Possibilities for Prosperity, by Michael J. Priore and Charles Sabel, is supposed to be of interest on this topic.
That region does not look that different and their "socialism" is not particularly strong, and the co-operative are often guilds of small business owners. But the important things is the culture is more one of reciprocity than of "grind the face of the poor in the dust" as in more pinochetized/reaganized/clintonized culture.
ReplyDeletePart of this may be "geoanthopology": when the big river Po floods bot then homes of poor an rich go under and everybody helps everybody else lest they be drowned "because rugged individualism".
Thanks. I could learn a lot more about Emila-Romagna.
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