A Faustian Bargain? Commoning under market conditions

The case of A cereal producer cooperative in a Swiss Alpine Region

Bibliographic Data

ID8945733
AuthorsSarah Steinegger (0009-0006-3035-2703, University of Bern), Jean-David Gerber (0000-0001-9111-9071, University of Bern, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume173
Pages104637-104637
Publication date2026-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeoforum (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0016-7185 • E-ISSN: 1872-9398
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.geoforum.2026.104637
OpenAlexW7146967560
LanguageEN
References cited56

Proposes cooperative commoning to study the development of cooperatives. • Challenges deterministic accounts of cooperative degeneration. • Demonstrates members’ and managers’ agency in sustaining cooperative values. • Reveals cooperative hybridization through strategic market and policy engagement. • Highlights tensions between market pressures and cooperative values. Cooperatives negotiate between a variety of logics and goals, including economic viability, socio-ecological commitments, and democratic governance. While many tend to shift toward market-oriented models over time, this article explores how cooperatives can continuously enact and renegotiate principles and values that are oriented toward shared goals among members, managers, and the broader public good. We understand this as a dynamic and contested process unfolding along a continuum of cooperative commoning, shaped by the institutional bricolage of cooperative members and managers – articulation, alteration , aggregation , and re-articulation . Drawing on an in-depth qualitative case study of Gran Alpin, a cereal producer cooperative in the mountain region of Grisons, Switzerland, we analyze how cooperative ideals are established, maintained, and transformed over time. Our findings show that Gran Alpin’s early practices and institutions represented a strong articulation of cooperative commoning, shaped by the perceived failures of state support and market inclusion, ecological risks and economic vulnerability, cultural references, and dense social capital. Over time, however, this founding ideal has been challenged by shifting internal dynamics and external pressures. While maintaining core dimensions of cooperative commoning, they have also strategically hybridized this ideal to gain and sustain legitimacy by aggregating market logics. They have further strategically altered public policies to sustain the ecological and cultural values of their resources and make related know-how accessible beyond their organizational boundaries. Although managerial leadership and profitability concerns have gained prominence, ongoing efforts to re-articulate collective identity and responsibility have enabled Gran Alpin to partially renew cooperative commoning. Our analysis demonstrates that sustaining cooperative principles and values requires continuous institutional adaptation, including selective engagement with market mechanisms and public policy processes. Overall, our case study illustrates the contradictions and possibilities of pursuing cooperative commoning within capitalist agri-food systems

Agency (philosophy · Articulation (sociology · Bricolage · Ideal (ethics · Legitimacy · Negotiation · Variety (cybernetics · Cooperative Studies and Economics · Management and Organizational Studies · Social Sciences and Governance

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access