ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the variegated Italian cooperative movement by focusing on the hybridisation of large cooperative groups as well as on the emergence of new types of undertaking as the social (dating back to the 1970s) and community cooperatives. The latter were set up after the 2008 crisis as an attempt to contrast the negative effect of the hyper-urbanisation of the last decades and involving different kinds of stakeholders: workers, volunteers, public administration, and sometimes also some large cooperatives (when they provided the business skills as well as the financial support). The cooperative movement supported their development also by building a new narrative and providing them with a past, with a storytelling. Their development was the consequence of a double movement: a bottom-up process activated by residents in marginal areas who wanted to improve the quality of life of the entire community; a top-down process started by cooperative apex organisations and public administrations which accompanied the residents’ attempts by providing a legal framework as well as capacity building and financial support.
