“Recovered enterprises”
A recently published book illustrates a different way of doing business
Doing business in a different way, as exemplified by what are termed “recovered enterprises”, whose number has risen to several dozens in Italy since the economic and financial crisis erupted in 2008 and up to now – a phenomenon that not only entails a different corporate culture, but also a new approach that could be adopted by many companies in a crisis.
Members of the Collettivo di Ricerca Sociale (Organisation for social research) have investigated the phenomenon of “recovered enterprises” for a research study funded by the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the University of Milano-Bicocca, as part of the scientific activities comprised in the 2018-2022 “Progetto di Eccellenza” (Project of Excellence) scheme. The investigation’s results have now been translated into book form by Romolo Calcagno (PhD in Sociology and Applied Social Sciences at the Sapienza University of Rome) and Leonard Mazzone (Post-Doc Research Fellow in Social and Political Philosophy at the University of Milano-Bicocca).
The study attempts to bring some order to the various “recovery” activities undertaken by businesses that collapsed between 2008 and the present day, and then acquired a new lease of life as cooperatives, “thanks to the synergy established between support communities of workers and public institutions,” explain the two authors. Thus, Calcagno and Mazzone first summarise what took place as “a prime example of a solidarity response that could potentially become widespread”, prompted by a number of negative effects resulting from changes in economic trends, which have driven “a growing portion of resources – human and non- – to react against becoming redundant.” As further emphasised, as well as reclaiming such resources and restoring their value, “recovered enterprises represent an emblematic example of mutual solidarity, of activities that society can employ to fight back market obsolescence, beginning from the workplace.”
As such, on the one hand this book is a summary of all that led to this and, on the other, it is the narration of various cases involving enterprises, workers and territories. After a first section that frames the theme within its historical and legal contexts (the “recovery” of enterprises is based on the “Marcora Law”), the authors proceed to examine 15 case studies of such “recovered enterprises”, in order to understand what actually happens within these particular forms of production organisation and therefore attempt to formulate a number of working proposals aimed at improving the outcome of their activities.
Undoubtedly, Calcagno and Mazzone’s book focuses on the stories of specific cases, and, in some respects, the analytical approach and the theoretical bases employed to interpret reality and results are equally specific. Nonetheless, this literary and academic endeavour provides readers with some unusual viewpoints that are useful to better understand the evolution of the Italian industrial system and a culture of production that is not at all uniform but rather diverse and vibrant.
Recovered enterprises in Italy. From a Collettivo di Ricerca Sociale’s research study
Romolo Calcagno, Leonard Mazzone
Castelvecchi Editore, 2022
A recently published book illustrates a different way of doing business
Doing business in a different way, as exemplified by what are termed “recovered enterprises”, whose number has risen to several dozens in Italy since the economic and financial crisis erupted in 2008 and up to now – a phenomenon that not only entails a different corporate culture, but also a new approach that could be adopted by many companies in a crisis.
Members of the Collettivo di Ricerca Sociale (Organisation for social research) have investigated the phenomenon of “recovered enterprises” for a research study funded by the Department of Sociology and Social Research of the University of Milano-Bicocca, as part of the scientific activities comprised in the 2018-2022 “Progetto di Eccellenza” (Project of Excellence) scheme. The investigation’s results have now been translated into book form by Romolo Calcagno (PhD in Sociology and Applied Social Sciences at the Sapienza University of Rome) and Leonard Mazzone (Post-Doc Research Fellow in Social and Political Philosophy at the University of Milano-Bicocca).
The study attempts to bring some order to the various “recovery” activities undertaken by businesses that collapsed between 2008 and the present day, and then acquired a new lease of life as cooperatives, “thanks to the synergy established between support communities of workers and public institutions,” explain the two authors. Thus, Calcagno and Mazzone first summarise what took place as “a prime example of a solidarity response that could potentially become widespread”, prompted by a number of negative effects resulting from changes in economic trends, which have driven “a growing portion of resources – human and non- – to react against becoming redundant.” As further emphasised, as well as reclaiming such resources and restoring their value, “recovered enterprises represent an emblematic example of mutual solidarity, of activities that society can employ to fight back market obsolescence, beginning from the workplace.”
As such, on the one hand this book is a summary of all that led to this and, on the other, it is the narration of various cases involving enterprises, workers and territories. After a first section that frames the theme within its historical and legal contexts (the “recovery” of enterprises is based on the “Marcora Law”), the authors proceed to examine 15 case studies of such “recovered enterprises”, in order to understand what actually happens within these particular forms of production organisation and therefore attempt to formulate a number of working proposals aimed at improving the outcome of their activities.
Undoubtedly, Calcagno and Mazzone’s book focuses on the stories of specific cases, and, in some respects, the analytical approach and the theoretical bases employed to interpret reality and results are equally specific. Nonetheless, this literary and academic endeavour provides readers with some unusual viewpoints that are useful to better understand the evolution of the Italian industrial system and a culture of production that is not at all uniform but rather diverse and vibrant.
Recovered enterprises in Italy. From a Collettivo di Ricerca Sociale’s research study
Romolo Calcagno, Leonard Mazzone
Castelvecchi Editore, 2022