Dieser Beitrag bietet eine Konzeption zur Erfassung und Definition grundlegender Merkmale kooperativen Wirtschaftens für das Gemeinwohl in der Zivilgesellschaft. Zur konzeptionellen Rahmung solcher Wirtschaftsformen werden aus zentralen Diskursen zur Zivilgesellschaft und dem Non-Profit- bzw. Dritten Sektor, zum Genossenschaftswesen sowie zum Sozialunternehmertum zehn idealtypische Kernmerkmale destilliert: (1) Verantwortung für die Öffentlichkeit (2) Gemeinwohlorientierung (3) verbundwirtschaftliche Kooperation (4) gemeinschaftliche Selbstbestimmung und Emanzipation (5) demokratische Mitwirkung (6) gemeinschaftlich geteiltes Eigentum (7) Bedarfswirtschaft (8) wirtschaftliche Tragfähigkeit (9) experimentelle Transformation (10) Civic Action. Damit bietet der Beitrag einen Bezugsrahmen für die Analyse empirischer Formen kooperativen Wirtschaftens der Zivilgesellschaft für das Gemeinwohl, wie sie das vom Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung geförderte Verbundprojekt „Teilgabe“ vornimmt.

This article explores the relation between ownership and sustainability on a conceptual level. It specifically examines different imaginaries of sustainable property by asking how private property rights and their restrictions are conceptualized as instruments for sustainability. To do so, conflicting notions of property that underlie Western jurisprudence and political theory are contrasted. This brings us to the identification of two major traditions in property thought that build on atomist or relational conceptions of society and property, respectively. Property might be conceived as an owner’s exclusive control over an object, or as a ‘bundle of rights’ that comprises entitlements, restrictions, and obligations to various actors. Largely within the paradigm of modernization as a trajectory of sustainability, these two fundamental traditions in property theory relate to different approaches to encode sustainability into property law: i) propertization, i.e. the extension of private property forms, as in the case of carbon emissions trading schemes; ii) the acknowledgment of social and environmental obligations inherent to property, illustrated by the social obligation norm in German law.

This paper analyzes community-supported agriculture (CSA) as a particular form of democratic experimentalism in food systems. Specifically, we explore both primary and secondary CSA initiatives in Germany, based on participatory observation on meetings and workshops, and on qualitative interviews. Opposing the industrial food system and market-based food distribution, CSA activists envision transformative change toward a sustainable, regionalized, and more democratic food system. A key feature of CSA as a specific form of alternative food organizations is its underlying collaborative effort among farmers and households: consumers take over production risks, make investments in their CSA and share crops, whereby they decouple producers' income from harvest yield and market prices. Employing a perspective that is informed by John Dewey's notion of democratic publics and experimentalism, we show that both on the primary and secondary levels as well as in collaboration with other political, economic, or civic actors, CSA is a manifestation of civil society's ongoing and never-ending inquiry to find joint solutions for their shared problems. We explore CSAs as democratic forms, in terms of their diverse internal structures and practices within the primary initiatives and also the secondary network. Furthermore, we reflect on their overall potential to democratize food systems. On all levels, we find the modus of experimentalism as the essential form of democratic inquiry. We show how the varying kinds of democracy that are embodied by primary initiatives differ from one another, and what kind of boundaries exist. These boundaries, inter alia, limit CSA's potential to achieve food democracy on a societal level, if democracy means giving everyone the opportunity to have a say whenever they are affected.

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Zusammenfassung Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden empirische Ergebnisse einer vom Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie zum Thema „Potenziale und Hemmnisse von unternehmerischen Aktivitäten in der Rechtsform der Genossenschaft“ in Auftrag gegebenen Studie dahingehend vorgestellt, ob und in welchem Ausmaß die durch die Novelle von 2006 eingeführten neuen Regelungen im Genossenschaftsgesetz von Genossenschaften tatsächlich genutzt und ob die intendierten Ziele der Novelle erreicht werden.