The Role of Cooperatives for Social Innovation and Local Sustainable Development

This conceptual paper investigates the role of cooperatives for social innovation and local sustainable development in the context of the Region Lombardy, which is the Italian most populated and most economically relevant region, as well as the region with the largest number of employees in cooperative enterprises. The discussion is based on an exploratory study involving 9 cooperatives through semi-structured interviews with members of the boards and managers with the aim of exploring subjective viewpoints and gather in-depth accounts on cooperatives as central actors within the Social and Solidarity Economy ecosystem. In the paper the results of the interviews are presented, some implications are derived from them and some problems are identified that could limit the cooperatives' capacity to unfold their full potential as natural carriers of social and sustainable innovation.