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Co-operatives

The research programme “Co-operatives” started about 15 years ago with support from the Co-operative Union and Wholesale Society's research foundation (KFs forskningsstiftelse). Earlier work focused on mapping the extent and role of cooperatives within or adjacent to the non-profit sector in Sweden.

The analytical level was the Swedish society and how the structure and size of the Swedish cooperatives / non-profit sector compared with large international comparative studies ( f. ex. the John Hopkins non-profit sector study).

A new research project regarding co-operatives started in 2009 in which producer cooperatives will be studied. The project analyses the role of members in the strategic decision-making within two large cooperatives: Lantmännen and Södra. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are and will be used in the project and the analytical level of the research is the organizational level and the governance of organizations. More specifically the project employs both a large survey of the members views on their role in the governance of the organizations, 1,000 surveys have been sent out to each of the two organizations. This survey study is then followed by a historical document study as well as an interview study with past and present leaders of the organizations in order to define and analyze the strategic junctions that have formed the organizations from a governance perspective.

Selected publications

Wijkström, F. and Einarsson, T. (2006) Från nationalstat till näringsliv? Det civila samhällets organisationsliv i förändring, EFI, Stockholm.

Wijkström, F. and Lundström, T. (2002) Den ideella sektorn. Organisationerna i det civila samhället, Sober Förlag, Stockholm.

Wijkström, F. (2001) "Neuer Schwerpunkt oder neue Rolle? Der schwedische Nonprofit-Sektor in der 90er Jahren" in Der Dritte Sektor International. Mehr Markt – Weniger Staat?, E. Priller and A. Zimmer (eds) p. 77-99, WZB, Edition Sigma, Berlin.

Wijkström, F. and Johnstad, T. (2000) Om kooperation & social ekonomi, Kooperativ Årsbok 2000 (eds), Föreningen Kooperativa Studier, Stockholm Socialvetenskaplig tidskrift, Nr 2-3, p. 194-221.

Lundström, T. and F. Wijkström, F. (1997) The nonprofit sector in Sweden, Manchester University Press, Manchester (UK).

Wijkström, F. (1997) "The Swedish nonprofit sector in international comparison" in Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Vol. 68, No. 4, December (1997).

Stryjan, Y. and F. Wijkström (1996) "Cooperatives and Nonprofit Organizations in Swedish Social Welfare" in Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Vol. 67, No. 1, pp. 5-27, March.