Interview with Maryline Filippi, Professor of Economics, co-editor of Recma and member of the ICA Europe Research Committee
As for the social and solidarity-based economy, the production of figures is a major technical, statistical and political challenge for cooperatives. Maryline Filippi is categorical: cooperatives are not studied to their true value in France.
"On this subject, our country is far behind Germany and the United States. Cooperatives would benefit from opening up to the world of research and vice versa. If we compare capitalist and cooperative governance, the latter is hardly studied at all. The French cooperative movement is confronted with a lack of knowledge and a poor perception of its economic model by both the public authorities and the general public.
Even if the law on the Social and Solidarity-based Economy (SSE), enacted in July 2014, has been able to improve its visibility, this search for recognition is still ongoing. Long considered as unprofitable enterprises, there is a real challenge to conduct research on governance, appropriate performance indicators, cooperative added value, etc. It would be interesting to create and develop measurement indicators adapted to cooperatives as well as, at the international level, to coordinate and converge the statistical systems of each country. The construction of a common statistical model could significantly improve the knowledge of this group of organisations and allow a better estimation of its economic and social impact".