Worker cooperatives, economic inclusion, and structural inequality: U.S. and Italy compared

Abstract

This article reviews and compares the literature from the U.S. and Italy about whether worker cooperatives foster economic inclusion of marginalized workers and whether worker cooperatives challenge or enhance structural inequality. The Author categorizes the various scholarship addressing these issues and analyses the resultant themes. Two questions warranting further research are proposed. First, how can Labor & Employment Law and Cooperative Law be designed or interpreted to work in tandem to provide dignified terms and conditions of employment? Second, how can internal industrial relations of worker cooperatives best be structured to challenge rather than enforce structural inequality?