ABSTRACT
In this contribution, we will dive into the morphological characteristics of cooperatives concerning their difference from profit-driven enterprises and their inherent support of their members in terms of their economic, social, and cultural needs, their democratic self-governance, and their principles of solidarity and reciprocity. Special attention will be given to their relational character, enabling flows of material and immaterial resources, and providing infrastructures. The cooperative proves to be an alternative form to the capitalist firm due to its structural characteristics. Whether cooperatives can contribute to the transformation of capitalism depends on their understanding as either (a) normal, albeit somewhat different, forms of economic activity in a quasi-natural order of the market, (b) this normal but somewhat different form of economic activity yet instrumentalized by public social policy, (c) alternative islands with a high degree of autonomy in the hegemonic normality of a political economy otherwise culturally dominated by the capitalist spirit, or (d) the nucleus and development path of a transgressive logic of overcoming the culture of capitalism as a performative culture of property rights individualism.
