Social cooperative

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Part of the series on
Cooperatives
Types of Co-operatives

Housing cooperative
Building cooperative
Retailers' cooperative
Utility cooperative
Worker cooperative
Social cooperative
Consumers' cooperative
Agricultural cooperative
Credit union
Cooperative banking
Cooperative federation
Cooperative union
Cooperative wholesale society
Mutual insurance

The Rochdale Principles

Voluntary and open membership
Democratic member control
Member economic participation
Autonomy and independence
Education, training, and information
Cooperation among cooperatives
Concern for community

Political and Economic Theories

Anarchism
Cooperative federalism
Cooperative individualism
Owenism
Third way
Socialism
Socially responsible investing
Social enterprise

Key Theorists

Robert Owen
William King
The Rochdale Pioneers
G.D.H. Cole
Charles Gide
Beatrice Webb
Friedrich Raiffeisen
David Griffiths

Organizations

List of cooperatives
List of cooperative federations
International Co-operative Alliance
Co-operative Party

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An Italian social cooperative is a particularly successful form of multi-stakeholder cooperative, of which some 7,000 exist. A "type A" social cooperative brings together providers and beneficiaries of a social service as members. A "type B" social cooperative brings together permanent workers and previously unemployed people who wish to integrate into the labour market.

Social co-operatives are legally defined as follows:

  • the objective is the general benefit of the community and the social integration of citizens
  • type A co-operatives provide health, social or educational services
  • those of type B integrate disadvantaged people into the labour market. The categories of disadvantage they target may include physical and mental disability, drug and alcohol addiction, developmental disorders and problems with the law. They do not include other factors of disadvantage such as race, sexual orientation or abuse
  • various categories of stakeholder may become members, including paid employees, beneficiaries, volunteers (up to 50% of members), financial investors and public institutions. In type B co-operatives at least 30% of the members must be from the disadvantaged target groups
  • the co-operative has legal personality and limited liability
  • voting is one person one vote
  • no more than 80% of profits may be distributed, interest is limited to the bond rate and dissolution is altruistic (assets may not be distributed)

A good estimate of the current size of the social co-operative sector in Italy is given by updating the official ISTAT figures from the end of 2001 by an annual growth rate of 10% (assumed by the Direzione Generale per gli Ente Cooperativi). This gives totals of 7,100 social co-operatives, with 267,000 members, 223,000 paid employees, 31,000 volunteers and 24,000 disadvantaged people undergoing integration. Combined turnover is around 5 billion euro. The co-operatives break into three types: 59% type A (social and health services), 33% type B (work integration) and 8% mixed. The average size is 30 workers.