Cooperatives in a Changing World: A Swiss Perspective

This book focuses on different aspects of cooperatives in Switzerland and its neighboring countries, and their contribution to meeting overarching societal challenges. It seeks to identify how cooperatives can tackle grand societal challenges and extends the body of research on cooperatives. The discussions are highlighted in the context of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

The respective chapters cover topics such as cooperatives in Switzerland (historical roots, current landscape, embeddedness in profit/nonprofit organizations, participatory governance and legal aspects), grand societal challenges and cooperatives, and the future with and of cooperatives.

This is an open access book.

Michael Ambühl is the former Head of Negotiation and Conflict Management Chair at ETH Zurich, Switzerland and former director of the ETH Swiss School of Public Governance (SSPG). Dr. Ambühl’s teaching and research at ETH Zurich focus on the theoretical background of negotiation engineering, and on different technical and applied schools of thought in negotiation, mediation and conflict management. He has more than 30 years’ experience as a Swiss diplomat and negotiator.

Stefano Brusoni has been a Professor of Technology and Innovation Management at the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics, ETH Zurich, Switzerland since 2011. His current work focuses on analyzing the obstacles to innovation and change at both the individual and organizational level. The former area is, to a large extent, experimental in nature, while the latter is mainly field-based, involving collaboration with several organizations engaged in the so-called digital transformation. His research has led to several papers in various journals, and to the founding of two start-ups (Spark Works and Sparkademy).

Anja Niedworok is a former external PhD student at the Department of Technology and Innovation Management at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. The focus of her thesis was on framing and reframing processes in the context of solving ill-structured problems in design thinking. In addition, she was responsible for the Innovation Department at the Chamber of Commerce in Tyrol. She is currently the group academic leader of the project ＂Cooperatives in a Changing World＂ at ETH Zurich and supports teams at hybrid and for-profit organizations in the initial phase of developing their business model.

Martin Gutmann is a Professor of Management at the Lucerne School of Business, Lucene University of Applied Sciences and Arts and a Lecturer at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, where he is also a member of the research group ＂Cooperatives in a Changing World.＂ A historian by training, his research investigates how adopting a historical perspective can help solve contemporary challenges, including topics such as leadership, sustainability, and public policy. His most recent books are Before the UN Sustainable Development Goals: A Historical Companion (Oxford University Press, 2022) and The Unseen Leader: How History Can Help Us Rethink Leadership (Springer, 2023).