Title: Cooperatives—saviours or gravediggers of capitalism? Critical performativity and the John Lewis Partnership
Abstract: The structures of ownership and governance at John Lewis, a major UK employee-owned retailer, have been commended by those who wish to recuperate capitalism and by those who seek to transform it. From a perspective of ‘critical performativity’, John Lewis is of special interest since it is celebrated as a successful organization and heralded as an alternative to more typical forms of capitalist enterprise. By examining the cooperative elements of the John Lewis structures of ownership and governance, we illuminate a number of issues faced in realizing the principles ascribed to employee-owned cooperatives—notably, with regard to ‘democratic member control’, ‘member economic participation’ and ‘autonomy and independence’.
Publication Year: 2014
Publication Date: 2014-08-20
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 92
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