ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an analytical framework designed to assess the different aspects of ethics that may be at work in organisations such as cooperatives. The analysis is illustrated through a study of the history of wine cooperatives in Languedoc from their inception up to the 1980s. It presents the current situation and analyses how the nature and realisation of cooperative ethics are changing once again. The chapter discusses the nature of an ethical project and the current conditions for its development in French wine cooperatives. Ethical principles may be construed as the extension of group or individual solidarity towards others. Thus, ethical concerns were core to the Maraussan cooperative project and were integrated in a political perspective. During a first phase of development, cooperatives enacted their ethical commitment by being part of the social movement of the early industrial society, which was oriented towards the central conflict of this era, capitalists versus workers.
