Worker and social cooperatives within the wider cooperative movement

This chapter explores worker and social cooperatives within the broader cooperative movement, highlighting their global significance, historical evolution and the development of universal standards. The text traces the historical development of worker cooperativism from 17th-century “common-wealths” to the present, detailing the emergence of a full-fledged worker cooperative movement first in France in the 1830s, and the subsequent rise of social cooperatives beginning in Italy in the 1960s, largely stemming from the Italian worker cooperative movement. The chapter also analyses the evolution of the international cooperative principles since the 17th century, culminating in the 1995 Statement on the Cooperative Identity and its subsequent formal recognition within the UN system through ILO Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation, 2002 (n° 193), making them universal standards approved by the international community. It explores the complementary standards elaborated by worker and social cooperatives. It introduces key concepts used throughout the book, including multistakeholder cooperatives, social enterprises and the Social and Solidarity Economy, a new concept now recognised by the United Nations.