Worker-owned cooperatives and the social work community

Despite the shared values and goals of worker-owned cooperatives and the field of social work, a notable disconnect persists between these groups in the United States. This study served several purposes. First, it aimed to explore the appropriateness of the social work field’s involvement with cooperatives. Secondly, it investigated the potential ways in which social workers, as well as social work institutions, could promote, support, and advance the American worker-owned cooperative movement. Thirdly, it sought to provide foundational knowledge for future research. Nine expert members of the cooperative community participated in semi-structured interviews. The nature of this research was exploratory and qualitative. The results of this study revealed that participants were able to identify four major similarities between cooperatives and the social work field. The existence of hierarchical structures in the field of social work was identified as a fundamental difference. Participants expressed a need for interdisciplinary partnerships among these two fields. Finally, some participants believed that, as social work moves further away from its social movement roots, micro practice is being overemphasized; typically at the expense of macro problems that cooperatives often address. Implications of this study include changes to social work curricula, additional interdisciplinary collaborations, and a call for cooperative advocacy among social work professionals.