30187 - Economic History of Cooperation and Non-Profit Organisations

Learning outcomes

This course is designed to provide students with an understanding of the historical development leading from welfare system in pre-industrial Europe to modern form non profit organizations, mutual and cooperative societies.

At the end of the course students will be able to:

-          know the many different shapes taken by charitable agencies, cooperative societies and non profit organizations;

-          understand the interaction between exchange and reciprocity in the history of economic systems;

-          assess the relationship between charitable and cooperative activities, and socio-cultural motives.

Course contents

1) At the roots of non profit organizations: motives, financing and forms of poor relief in Medieval and Early Modern Europe.

2) From charity to solidarity: the Friendly Societies

3) The origins of consumer cooperative movement: the pioneers of Rochdale and the principles of the modern cooperative movement.

4) The origins of production cooperatives in France and credit cooperatives in Germany.

5) Charities, friendly societies and cooperatives in the unified kingdom of Italy (1861-1900)

6) State, local administrations and the cooperative movement in the age of Giovanni Giolitti (1900-1915)

7) Charities and cooperatives in Fascist Italy (1922-1945).

8) Welfare State, charitable agencies and cooperatives in early Republican Italy (1945-1950).

9) The cooperative movement as an agent of economic development in Italy in the second half of the 20th century.

10) The crisis of the welfare state and the perspectives of the Third Sector.

Readings/Bibliography

- B. Farolfi, V. Melandri (ed.), Il Fund raising in Italia. Storia e prospettive, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2008.

- M. Fornasari, V. Zamagni, Il movimento cooperativo in Italia. Un profilo storico-economico (1854-1992), Vallecchi, Firenze, 1997.

- Barbetta G.P. (a cura di), Senza scopo di lucro, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1996, pp. 35-73; 147-193.

or

- G.P. Barbetta, S. Cima, N. Zamaro, Le istituzioni nonprofit in Italia. Dimensioni organizzative, economiche e sociali, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2003, pp. 109-218.

 

Assessment methods

Written exam

Office hours

See the website of Bernardino Farolfi