Why Mondragon? Analyzing What Works in Overcoming Inequalities

Abstract

Research using the critical communicative methodology (CCM) aims to identify the elements that help overcome inequalities. Drawing on research on the Basque Mondragon Corporation (MC), the authors focus on two major elements such as, selecting research cases that have been shown to succeed in overcoming inequalities, and communicative data analysis to identify transformative and exclusionary dimensions, with a special emphasis on the former as a potential strategy to extend the successful model. Despite the current economic crisis, the Mondragon Corporation is a success story: It proves that a group can be globally competitive without giving up on cooperative principles. This article illustrates how these two methodological elements can be implemented in research practice.

Keywords

communicative data analysis Mondragon Corporation cooperativism successful actions

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Altuna, L. ( 2008). La experiencia cooperativa de Mondragon. Una síntesis general [Mondragon cooperative experience. A general summary]. Eskoriatza, Spain: LANKI-HUHEZI.

Crea. (2001-2004). WORKALÓ. The creation of new occupational patterns for cultural minorities. The gypsy case (RTD project. DG XII, Improving the Socio-economic Knowledge Base. 5th Framework Programme of Research of the European Commission). Hartford, CT: Author.

Crea. (2006-2011). INCLUD-ED. strategies for inclusion and social cohesion in Europe from education (Integrated Project. Priority 7, Citizens and Governance in a European Knowledge-based Society. 6th Framework Programme of Research of the European Commission). Hartford, CT: Author.

Denzin, N.K. , & Giardina, M. ( 2009). Qualitative inquiry and social justice. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.

Flecha, R. ( 1999). New educational inequalities. In M. Castells , P. Freire , R. Flecha , H. A. Giroux , D. Macedo , & P. Willis (Eds.), Critical education in the new information age (pp. 65-82). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Flecha, R. , Elboj, C. , & Santa Cruz, I. (2009, September). Moving beyond the crisis: The mondragon cooperativist group. Paper presented at the 9th Conference of the European Sociological Association, Lisbon, Portugal.

Gómez, A. , Racionero, S. , & Sordé, T. (2010). Ten years of critical communicative methodology. International Review of Qualitative Research, 3(1), 17-43.

Gómez, J. , Latorre, A. , Sánchez, M. , & Flecha, R. ( 2006). Metodología comunicativa crítica [Critical communicative methodology]. Barcelona, Spain: Hipatia.

Grupo Mondragón. (2008). Informe anual 2007. Mondragon, Spain: Litografía Dannona.

10.

Habermas, J. ( 1984). The theory of communicative action Volume 1: Reasons and the rationalization of society . Boston, MA: Beacon.

11.

Pigou, A.C. ( 1952). The economics of welfare. London: Macmillan.

12.

Santa Cruz, I. , Flecha, A. , & Serradell, O. ( 2009). La promoción de una economía no capitalista: El grupo Mondragon [The promotion of a non capitalist economy: The Mondragon Group]. Teoría de la Educación. Educación y Cultura en la Sociedad de la Información, 10, 180-197.

13.

Sen, A. ( 2009). Capitalism beyond the crisis. New York Review of Books, 56(5). Retrieved from http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/mar/26/capitalism-beyond-the-crisis

14.

Smith, A. ( 1913). An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. London; New York: G. Routledge & sons, limited; E. P. Dutton and Co.

15.

Wright, E. , & Fung, A. ( 2003). Deepening democracy. Institutional innovations in empowered participatory governance. The Real Utopias Project IV. New York, NY: Verso.