ABSTRACT
In Argentina, cooperatives have experienced significant growth and revitalisation since the turn of the century. They have developed primarily through the formation and development of worker cooperatives through three modalities. Firstly, enterprises recuperated by their workers, organised as social movements, have converted hundreds of capitalist enterprises that were in crisis into cooperatives. Second, the State has promoted through public policy the creation of cooperatives as a means of social inclusion, sometimes in synergy with social movements. Finally, technological cooperatives have also increasingly been formed in highly innovative sectors. The purpose of this chapter is to compare these various types of cooperatives in terms of their productive, labour, and associative qualities, assessing their capability for social innovation. The chapter is based on research and predominantly qualitative fieldwork conducted by the authors over a 15-year period.
