With growing economic inequality and threats to the sustainability of human societies, Koh argues that cooperatives can play an important role in promoting decent work and reducing economic inequality in the twenty-first century and thus urges policy makers to reignite policy discussions on cooperatives.
This book shows how worker cooperatives are uniquely situated to empower low- and middle-wage workers and what governments can do to promote them. Koh clarifies the mechanism by which cooperatives create an upper hand over conventional companies in ‘labor-intensive’ sectors, thereby boosting employment potential. He also explains cooperatives’ wide contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including the resilience of cooperatives in times of crises and their potential to address the challenges of aging societies. Furthermore, he provides a foundational work on ‘decentralized supporting mechanisms for cooperatives’ based on the analysis of the case of South Korea, where the number of cooperatives increased by 2,000 percent between 2013 and 2023. Lastly, he explains how to use Official Development Assistance (ODA) to support cooperatives in developing countries, especially Private Sector Instruments (PSIs), which were introduced in 2016 by the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
This book will be of interest to researchers in the fields of cooperative management, development economics, and heterodox economics, as well as to policy makers and professionals.
Contents Introduction The approach of the book The structure of the book Literature survey Part I. What is a cooperative? 1. A cooperative is a firm The most important identifying aspects of a cooperative The five characteristics of cooperatives based on the ICA principles Conclusion 2. The seven strengths of cooperatives The seven strengths of cooperatives Two strengths of conventional companies The competition between cooperatives and conventional companies Skepticism about cooperatives Conclusion 3. The six types of cooperatives The criteria for classifying cooperatives The classification of cooperatives A supplementary classification of cooperatives based on their strength Successes and limitations of cooperatives Conclusion Part II. Why cooperatives in the 21st century? 4. Widening inequality and the importance of decent work The negative impacts of inequality on human society The need for government intervention in addressing inequality Causes of outcome inequality deriving from labor income issues Countermeasures to the causes of outcome inequality deriving from labor income issues Labor market policies to support worker cooperatives Conclusion 5. The resilience of cooperatives in time of crises Crises aggravate inequality Cooperatives, resilience and ‘global crises’ Cooperatives, resilience and ‘local crises’ Conclusion 6. The role of cooperatives in supporting ageing societies Population ageing and threats to fiscal sustainability Countermeasures to ensure fiscal sustainability Cooperatives and the expansion of the tax base Cooperatives and the promotion of healthy ageing Conclusion 7. An overview of cooperatives’ contributions to the SDGs Cooperatives’ significant contributions to the SDGs The history of policy discussions on the cooperative movement Progress in mainstreaming cooperatives in UN policy discussions Conclusion Part III. Scaling up the cooperative movement 8. Promoting cooperatives through decentralized public support mechanisms The benefits of decentralized public support mechanisms Benefits of cooperatives for local communities The ‘structures’ of decentralized public support mechanisms for cooperatives The ‘contents’ of decentralized public support mechanisms for cooperatives The significant contribution of cooperatives to local governance Conclusion 9. Digitalizing cooperatives Impacts of digitalization on the market economy The digitalization of cooperatives Prototype business models Challenges Conclusion 10. The symbiotic potential between cooperatives and developing countries Developing countries and job creation in labor-intensive sector Developing countries and ‘effective’ decentralized public supporting mechanisms for cooperatives Cooperatives and migrant workers in developed countries Promoting cooperatives with Official Development Aid Conclusion The Way Forward
Jae Myong KOH is Dean of Education at Korea National Diplomatic Academy. Previously, he served as Vice-chair of the Development Assistance Committee, and Co-chair of the Community of Practice on Private Finance for Sustainable Development at the OECD. He is the author of Green Infrastructure Financing (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).
