Club Theory Perspective of Knowledge (and) Worker Cooperatives

In the age of the knowledge economy, there is a common thread linking cooperatives and knowledge; both may be understood in terms of club economics. Knowledge, the most valuable asset, should be perceived as a club good and cooperatives may be defined as member-owned clubs. Communities of practice facilitate learning and share similar (knowledge) club-characteristics with cooperatives. The resilience of both cooperatives and communities of practice is based on members’ active participation. In contrast to commons, diminished participation leads to a “tragedy of the club” Cooperatives provide the required higher-order organization principles and foundation for the development of participatory organizational/cognitive languages as a foundation for knowledge creation and exploitation by providing. However, a critical issue is the erosion of values and principles in cooperative enterprises that leads to degeneration of cooperatives and consequently, loss of identity and sense of belonging. The cooperative model may become more efficient facilitating participation and knowledge creation by cultivating communities of practice.