What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

Abstract There is a growing acknowledgement that micro-credit programs have potential for equitable and sustainable development. However, my anthropological research on the micro-credit program of the Grameen Bank shows that bank workers are expected to increase disbursement of loans among their members and press for high recovery rates to earn profit necessary for economic viability of the institution. To ensure timely repayment in the loan centers bank workers and borrowing peers inflict an intense pressure on women clients. In the study community many borrowers maintain their regular payment schedules through a process of loan recycling that considerably increases the debt-liability on the individual households, increases tension and frustration among household members, produces new forms of dominance over women and increases violence in society.

Micro-credit initiatives for equitable and sustainable development : who pays?; a case study of the Grameen Bank Program in rural Bangladesh

States and power in Africa: comparative lessons in authority and control.

The impact of cooperatives on agricultural technology adoption: Empirical evidence from Ethiopia

Summary. This paper attempts to provide a clear perspective on defining the social economy today. It addresses the question of the relevance of a unifying concept with its need to embrace the existing diversity of approaches and concepts. To this end, it surveys both historical and contemporary academic literature, as well as practice-rooted conceptualisations of the social economy. The first section outlines the analytical challenges to a reconstruction of the social economy concept. The second enhances the historical and space-bound diversity in theorising and institutionalising social economy practices. Section 3 focuses on contemporary reconceptualisations of the social economy in Francophone and Anglo-Saxon literature, while section 4 then suggests improvements to current ‘social economy’ concepts, by linking them to both the lessons of history and the views of social economy practitioners today.

/pdf/social-economy-third-sector-and-solidarity-relations-a-37t6rjxqk3.pdf

Social economy, third sector and solidarity relations: A conceptual synthesis from history to present

Cooperative development in Africa can be said to have traversed two main eras: the era of state control and that of liberalization. The first era lasted up to the early 1990s and saw the origin and substantial growth of cooperatives on the continent. During that period, different models of cooperative development were introduced on the continent. We distinguish a unified cooperative model, a social economy model, a social movement model, a producers' model and an indigenous model. But in all cases, cooperatives were engulfed into state politics. However, little is known about the impact of liberalization measures on these models. Our research in 11 African countries reveals that cooperatives in Africa have survived the market forces and continued to grow in number and membership. We see a slow but sure erosion of the unified model and the adoption of a social economy model. Cooperatives in Africa are re-examining their organizational forms and diversifying their activities in response to members' interests and needs.

/pdf/reinventing-the-wheel-african-cooperatives-in-a-liberalized-2nhls9mype.pdf

Reinventing the Wheel? African Cooperatives in a Liberalized Economic Environment

/pdf/the-social-economy-the-worldwide-making-of-a-third-sector-1q94y6b4lx.pdf

The Social Economy: the Worldwide Making of a Third Sector

The growing concern with poverty reduction in developing countries has triggered an emerging consensus among many actors, including the United Nations (UN), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and the European Union (EU), that the co-operative enterprise is the only form of organisation that meets all dimensions of poverty alleviation. The broad argument is that co-operatives have the advantages of identifying economic opportunities for the poor; empowering the disadvantaged to defend their interests; and providing security to the poor by allowing them to convert individual risks into collective risks. Consequently, co-operatives are increasingly being presented as a pre-condition for a successful drive against poverty and exclusion, more so in Africa (Birchall, 2004; 2003; ILO/ICA, 2003). Nevertheless, the arguments on the suitability of co-operatives for poverty alleviation in Africa tend to be based on expectations rather than the empirical functioning of these organisations. This is particularly the case because there has been a dearth of up-to-date literature that conveys the status of African co-operatives since the liberalisation of the sector in the mid 1990s. The last comprehensive studies of co-operatives in the early 1990s argued that these organisations had virtually failed to live up to this expectation (Birchall, 2004: 3). The 1993 World Bank studies (Hussi, et al, 1993; Porvali, 1993), for example, acknowledged the potential role that co-operatives could play in the development process in Africa, but only if they were disentangled from the state, restructured and run on business principles in line with the then emerging market economy. Since then, there has been limited, if any, literature on how African Encountering the Evidence: Co-operatives and Poverty Reduction in Africa

https://lirias.kuleuven.be/bitstream/123456789/271599/2/Wanyama+et+al+JCS+41+3.pdf

Encountering the Evidence: Co-operatives and Poverty Reduction in Africa

Discussion on the contribution of cooperatives to poverty reduction in Africa has quite often been based on their potential role rather than the actual impact, partly due to the dearth of empirical studies since the early 1990s. This paper provides evidence on the contribution of cooperatives to poverty reduction in Africa. Accordingly, it demonstrates that cooperatives have significantly contributed to the mobilization and distribution of financial capital; created employment and income-generating opportunities; constituted a forum for education and training; and set up solidarity schemes to cater for unexpected expenses related to illness, social welfare, death and other socio-economic problems.

/pdf/encountering-the-evidence-cooperatives-and-poverty-reduction-16flin3he8.pdf

Encountering the Evidence: Cooperatives and Poverty Reduction in Africa

https://emes.net/content/uploads/publications/Defourny.Develtere_ES_nord-sud_Chap1_FR.pdf

Origines et contours de l'economie sociale au nord et au sud

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