The financial capitalist system has generated a profound crisis of care and social ties in Western societies. Faced with this social fragmentation and the erosion of communities, cooperation presents itself as an alternative for rebuilding collective bonds and reorganising productive life around care, solidarity and social reproduction, beyond the logic of competition and extraction characteristic of financial capitalism. In this regard, we will draw on some of Beatrice Potter Webb’s thinking on cooperation to analyse the Italian experience.

Cooperation, care and social bonds

Beatrice Potter Webb (1858-1943) was a British sociologist and reformer whose studies focused on the structural causes of poverty and inequality. Her work was a critique of moralising philanthropy and individualistic explanations of poverty, proposing instead a community-based and structural vision of the poverty causes. She defended the role of cooperatives and trade unions as the foundations of economic democracy and welfare, anticipating contemporary debates on the “social infrastructure” of care and the collective moral economy.

Potter Webb therefore understood cooperation not only as an economic mechanism, but also as a form of social organisation that places care and solidarity at the heart of social bonds, rather than individual profit. In his empirical work on British consumer cooperatives, Potter Webb identified a radical alternative to capitalist profit: the redistribution of surplus in favour of the community, democratic management under the principle of “one person, one vote”, and the formation of deliberative and responsible citizenship. These ideas implied a different view of traditional class conflict, focusing on the transformative role of citizen self-organisation, as well as the centrality of cooperation and democratic negotiation in addressing social conflicts.

Historically, cooperation and mutualism anticipated the emergence of the welfare state, demonstrating that social security can be built “from below” through solidarity and reciprocity. Thus, European welfare models are notable for their plurality – liberal, conservative-corporatist, social-democratic and Mediterranean – and their relationship with social citizenship and community ties.

In recent decades, the so-called ‘second welfare’, based on the action of non-state actors (companies, communities, associations and cooperatives), has gained ground in the face of the limitations of traditional state welfare. Thus, the so-called ‘welfare diamond’ is an analytical model that highlights the interdependence between the state, the market, the community and organised civil society, placing cooperation as a key mechanism for hybridisation and balance between these poles.

Cooperativism in Italy: a brief history and current challenges

The Italian example illustrates how cooperation has brought together multiple cultural matrices (secular, socialist, Catholic), received institutional support and diversified territorially and organisationally. Since the founding of the first consumer cooperative in Turin (1854), inspired by the English model, the Italian cooperative movement has played a central role in social inclusion, mutualist economics, and civic innovation. After the Second World War and fascism, the 1948 Constitution explicitly recognised and promoted the social role of cooperation. From the 1970s onwards, social cooperatives became key players in the ‘third sector’, managing welfare services and promoting the labour inclusion of vulnerable groups.

In the second half of the 20th century, the organisational expansion of the movement gave rise to large national networks such as Coop Italia, which modernised and verticalised the sector. However, these dynamics have also created challenges: the concentration of power and the loss of links with the territories and their members, which have distanced them from their founding values.

However, in the face of the risks of institutionalisation and ‘financialisation’ of large cooperatives, new forms of solidarity economy have emerged, such as Solidarity Purchasing Groups (GAS in Italy), which are examples of Alternative Food Networks (AFN). These groups, which emerged in the 1990s, are democratically organised to make collective food purchases directly from local producers, prioritising criteria of equity, sustainability and proximity. Although economically the GAS and AFN respond to a niche economy, they have spread cooperative values, generating fairer, more sustainable and participatory models of production and consumption. Their impact is mainly cultural and social, reactivating bonds of trust and community self-organisation, as well as promoting collective learning and alternative practices to dominant capitalism.

To wrap things up

We can conclude that cooperation, as analysed by Beatrice Potter Webb, is a cornerstone for addressing the current crisis in care and social reproduction. Cooperation can translate solidarity into concrete institutions and practices, restoring the link between the economy and social bonds. And although the incorporation of cooperatives into the capitalist system has brought both progress and ambiguities, recent experiences show that, beyond their economic function, cooperatives play a very important role in regenerating social bonds.