A Critical Analysis of Italian Community Co-operatives: a Qualitative Research through Social Capital Theories for Investigating Territorial Connections and Community Development Processes

This Ph.D. thesis examines the recent phenomenon of Italian community co-operatives; these organizations are part of the broader field of community-based enterprises (Wilkinson & Quarter, 1996; Peredo & Chrisman, 2006; Somerville & McElwee, 2011). Particularly, the research investigates the role of Italian community co-operatives in the social and economic development of local areas. The reduction of public investments in welfare state and infrastructures has opened possibilities for local communities to organize, by themselves, new responses to their needs with social innovation. The co-operative legal form supports the democratic process for engaging local stakeholders and citizens in the regeneration of local assets and planning of new services according to communities’ needs (Bandini et al., 2014; Mori, 2017; Mori & Sforzi, 2019). Despite the great interest for community-based enterprises and recent studies on Italian community co-operatives, the scientific analysis must improve its comprehension of this phenomenon. As Zeuli and Freshwater (2004) state, previous researches have inquired the community co-operatives’ behavior assuming the organization as an autonomous entity rather than examine the relations between them and local communities. Moreover, as Somerville and McElwee (2011) indicate, there is a trend in community-based enterprise analysis in emphasizing the participation of all the community, as a whole collective, in the firms. As Kleinhans et al. (2019) recognize, only certain community members take part in the creation of these enterprises and they show a common background in community development activities. Alongside, Nembhard (2004) notices that not all community members take part in community-based enterprises or even used to be clients of these businesses. Looking at the wider frame, the analysis must consider diversities and social divisions into a territory. People who live in the same geographical area can have diverse social, cultural, religious and political backgrounds, thus, it might be difficult for them to feel as a whole community but rather they will identify themselves with a social group (Kretzmann & McNight, 1993; Phillips & Pittman, 2015). Considering this partiality of local members who create community-based enterprises and the variation of values and norms that members bring inside the projects, it is necessary to ask how these organizations vary in different contexts and socio-economic situations, are community development processes homogeneous? Which kind of relations can these community co-operatives establish with their territories? The research will analyze the impact of community cooperatives on contexts through the framework of social capital theories (Bourdieu, 1977, 1979, 1986, 1990; Putnam et al., 1993; Putnam, 2000). Moving between structural and functional aspects of social relations and the values and norms that regulate these networks it is possible to comprehend the specific social dynamics that allow the functioning of community co-operatives and shape their peculiarities in each socio-economic context. Conclusions highlight the partiality of communities’ participation in these initiatives; nevertheless, the structuration of stable partnerships with key stakeholders and local subjects allow these collective enterprises to socio-economically improve their communities. Furthermore, findings show how the founders’ groups represent a key element in the analysis of community co-operatives’ structuration and how they settle networks with the territories.