ABSTRACT
The chapter provides a comprehensive exploration of anthropology’s unique method for the study of cooperatives. It discusses the three fundamental pillars of ethnographic methodology: positionality, participation, and restitution. It recognizes that the cooperative spirit is embedded in every step of the research process and underscores the collaborative nature of knowledge creation between researchers and their interlocutors, who become co-researchers in the research process. The work elaborates on how ethnography excels at capturing aspects that may elude quantitative analysis in cooperative economics and management. Delving into the texts and life of Marcel Mauss, the first cooperative anthropologist, the chapter shows how cooperatives and anthropology share an entangled history. Finally, it draws from the author’s experience as both a researcher and a practitioner in a cooperative bank to provide a case study of a financial cooperative from an anthropological perspective, thereby paving the way for further academic exploration in this field.
