Historical Tensions, Institutionalization, and the Need for Multistakeholder Cooperatives

Gray, Thomas W.

doi:10.5304/jafscd.2014.043.013

Cited by 15 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Very scarce academic literature has dealt with MSCs in the specific context of food and farming initiatives (Lund, 2012;Gray, 2014). Gray's aforementioned framework can offer a helpful tool to assess MSCs' potential to overcome historical weakness in agricultural cooperatives (Gray, 2014).…”

Section: Methodology and The Open Cooperative Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 2014, Thomas Gray called for the formation of MSCs based on three historical cooperative tensions: (1) participation and democracy versus efficiency and capitalism, (2) localism versus globalism, and (3) production versus consumption (Gray, 2013). Gray suggests that MSCs can help ease these tensions while also offering an integrative organisational structure that can automatically internalise the current externalisation of human and environmental costs involved in food production and consumption (Gray, 2014). These tensions are similar to the ones earlier identified by Mooney (2004).…”

Section: Multi-stakeholder Cooperative Thinking Todaymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, little empirical research has been done to explore and discuss how the MSC movement is developing new models of food production and provision. Furthermore, very scarce academic literature has dealt with MSCs in the specific context of food and farming initiatives and existing publications focus on the US context only (Lund, 2012;Gray, 2014). This paper makes a theoretical and empirical contribution to this literature.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Empirical, by analysing two European case studies, one from Southern Europe (Spain) and one from Northern Europe (UK). In a time when many conventional farmers' cooperatives are focusing on the economic benefits of the cooperative model, forgetting their transformative origins (Gray and Stevenson, 2008;Berthelot, 2012;Gray, 2014), this research asks whether the MSC model can re-inject cooperative principles and the movement back into food and farming cooperatives.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Going back to go forwards? From multi-stakeholder cooperatives to Open Cooperatives in food and farming

Ajates

2017

Journal of Rural Studies

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Many authors have proposed cooperatives as one of the preferred governance structures for realising alternative food systems, being recommended both in farming and also downstream at consumer level. However, recommendations for the cooperative model still draw a dividing line between producer and consumer cooperatives. As opposed to conventional agricultural cooperatives (ACs) made up of farmer members only, the multi-stakeholder model brings together producers, consumers and/or restaurateurs under one single enterprise. This paper analyses multi-stakeholder cooperatives' (MSCs) potential to recreate more sustainable food flows between rural and urban areas and to overcome the limitations of conventional farmer cooperatives focused more on economic than social and environmental benefits. As part of this research, historical data from cooperative archives is used to look at the history and early attempts of multi-stakeholder cooperation in food and farming. Additionally, current supporting evidence from Spain and UK, in the context of European food policy frameworks, is also presented. A four-fold proposal for open cooperatives is discussed and applied to the analysis of the case studies in the framework of global transformative networks and alliances. The introduction of different types of members seems to both complicate and enrich the cooperative mission, both theoretically and in practice. Their networks with other social movements reveal how the MSCs presented are trying to change, rather than adapt to the market economies they struggle to survive in. The findings suggest MSCs in food and farming are striving to achieve more-than-economic benefits and are moving into the arena of the open and pro-commons economy and other global social movements.

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Section: Methodology and The Open Cooperative Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Multi-stakeholder Cooperative Thinking Todaymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Going back to go forwards? From multi-stakeholder cooperatives to Open Cooperatives in food and farming

Ajates

2017

Journal of Rural Studies

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“…ICA, 1995; see Ajates Gonzalez, this issue). This is in response to the often uneasy relationships between disparate motives for and benefits from cooperation (Mooney, 2004;Stock et al, 2014;Gray, 2016), particularly in regards to the balance of individual versus collective benefit (Emery 2015; see Wynne-Jones this issue).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The more-than-economic dimensions of cooperation in food production

Emery

Forney

Wynne‐Jones

2017

Journal of Rural Studies

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Monthly food auctions in Saint Mary's, Ohio, are events where individuals and their families have the opportunity to purchase a variety of foods at bargain prices. We might assume that the opportunity to fill the pantry while saving money would encourage greed and hoarding. An individual can bid strategically to amass resources (here defined as the supply of food available for consumption or resale) at the expense of others who are not as adept or willing to participate in the auction.We also might assume that the auction's suppliers and the auction house staff would look upon the event as a chance to earn a large return on their investments. Yet, the food auctions in Saint Mary's reveal an event where greed is managed and balanced against cooperation among bidders, suppliers, and auction house staff. In our article, we present data that confirm Like most projects, this one started with a discussion between the investigators. There was a special quality to our discussion-I (Cohen) was quite incredulous. I could not believe that (a) food auctions existed, and (b) they were something worth studying. Yet, the monthly food auctions in Saint Mary's, Ohio, proved to be quite interesting and a good place to focus our study. Klemetti had attended several auctions by the time I joined her and what we thought would be a competition over food-a competition to "win" bids at the expense of others-or to put it in terms that correspond to this conference, a place where greed was clear-was quite different.The food auction was a social event not wholly wrapped in greed and contest. It was a setting where people bid and enjoyed winning, but bidding and winning took place in an atmosphere that was convivial, where friendships were the rule and where little greed was demonstrated. The auctioneer, the supplier, and the bidders worked within a set of fairly rigid social parameters that did not allow for gouging, no one suffered from the loss of face over a missed bid and no one lost too much money in their bids. In fact, no one really "lost" at all, the auctioneer did not enjoy an excessive return at the expense 80

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From Theory to Practice: Social Capital in Agricultural Cooperatives in Flanders, Belgium

Friedel

Dufays

2023

Humanism in Business Series

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Amplified by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, cooperative enterprises have gained scholarly attention as they possess certain characteristics that help to overcome crisis-related challenges (Billiet et al., 2021;Schneiberg, 2021;Wulandhari et al., 2022). Their resilience has been explained mainly by the risk-averse economic characteristics pertaining to their organizational model where members simultaneously own, use, govern, and control the cooperative enterprise (Mamouni Limnios et al., S. Friedel (B) • F. Dufays KU Leuven,

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Historical Tensions, Institutionalization, and the Need for Multistakeholder Cooperatives

Cited by 15 publications

References 7 publications

Going back to go forwards? From multi-stakeholder cooperatives to Open Cooperatives in food and farming

Going back to go forwards? From multi-stakeholder cooperatives to Open Cooperatives in food and farming

The more-than-economic dimensions of cooperation in food production

From Theory to Practice: Social Capital in Agricultural Cooperatives in Flanders, Belgium

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