Coop and member participation in the European Year of Volunteering

This report presents the results of a survey conducted in 2011 among a representative sample of consumer cooperatives participating in the ANCC-Coop system. The research objective was to interview elected volunteers members of Coop, an important figure in the Coop system both from a quantitative and from a qualitative point of view, since it represents the linkage between citizenship and decision-making bodies of the cooperative, but also between the mutual nature of the cooperative and the members’ interest on the one hand and the social soul of the cooperative on the other side. The research, through a structured questionnaire, collected data on 663 volunteer members, investigating motivations, perceptions of the cooperative, participation and psychological values. The reading of data was accompanied with the analysis of the policies pursued in the cooperatives thanks to interviews to the social leaders of medium and large cooperatives adhering to ANCC-COOP.

The research report is available also in Italian: Coop e la partecipazione sociale nell’anno europeo del volontariato