Cooperatives as Commons

Discussion

Emil Beemer, Gijs Diercks, et al.  :

The mobility regime in the Netherlands relies on commodification, seeing mobility primarily as an economic good to be maximized for societal welfare. The core transformative potential of mobility cooperatives regarding this tenet is to reject growth and develop a shared responsibility among members for fulfilling their mobility needs sustainably and equitably through non-commodified means. Cooperatives in this study succeeded in creating this responsibility, offering practical benefits and a sense of community autonomy while connecting these to a broader vision.

However, this potential faces both internal and external tensions. Internally, cooperatives may be limiting their own potential through members’ pragmatic motivations to join (better parking and lower cost mobility) and deeper beliefs that cultural change is impossible, and that people are unwilling to change their ways. This can lead cooperatives to abandon their broader agenda. Externally, cooperatives face a concept of shared mobility that is dominated by commercial actors. While these use terms of “community” and “sharing” to attract customers, they are ultimately providing a commodified service (Freudendal-Pedersen and Kesselring, 2018). Cooperatives have struggled to portray themselves as transformative shared mobility since they too tend to emphasize practical benefits to attract members. Learning from similar transformative innovations, mobility cooperatives may become more empowered to achieve their larger goals by centering their mission of commoning mobility. French railway cooperative RailCoop is far more explicit about its vision for transforming rail mobility rather than claiming to provide a mobility service, and has attracted over 14,000 members and €8 million in investments (Schramm et al., 2024). By framing themselves as mobility commons, cooperatives can create stronger shared senses of e.g. relatedness, autonomy, and impact, which Avelino et al. (2020) indicate are key for initiatives to be empowered to achieve transformative impacts. This could connect cooperatives to broader networks of actors and initiatives for just mobility transitions, rather than following the current frame of shared mobility.”

(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2210422425000784?)