Pathways towards member participation in governance of cooperatives: Conjunction of motivations and resources in the case of French community energy

Abstract

Energy cooperatives promote a vision of democratic management of energy transition, but enacting this vision requires the active participation of members. In this paper, we aim to study the conditions leading to participation in the governance of cooperatives and how these conditions interact. Based on original data from a survey of members of a French energy cooperative, the study uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to research how the resources available to an individual interact with their motivations to influence participative behaviour. Our empirical results show that a strong ecological orientation is a necessary condition for active participation and that, depending on their socio-economic situation, different types of members mobilize different resources to participate. We contribute to the literature on cooperative participation and ‘green behaviours’ in general by making theoretical propositions to explain participation behaviour as a conjunction of motivations, resources and opportunities.