How did Spanish Cooperatives Fare in the Inter-Crisis Period (2008-2020)?

The paradigm of a new form of organization, that has underlain the discourse of entities, organizations and states for many years now, makes more sense than ever in the post-COVID era. The values of the Social Economy focused on cooperative principles, solidarity, equity and democracy become fundamental. The empirical evidence indicates that those countries with higher levels of social movements and a greater boom in the social economy are more capable of managing crises [1]. Today this reality is intertwined with sustainable development goals: “Social Economy is a business model whose values and principles are fully consistent with the objectives of the sustainable development agenda”1 . In this model, people are at the core and business activity is not the goal but a way to guarantee better collective well-being under a participatory and democratic process committed to the planet. In the post-pandemic era, the social economy should be at the core of decisions-makers’ agenda. We present some reflections about how Spanish cooperatives, the most important social economy entity in Spain, have fared in the period 2008-2020. We analyse their economic and financial profitability, because they are key indicators of the survival of a firm. The analysis is carried out breaking down cooperatives into four categories, depending on their turnover: micro (turnover ≤ 2 million), small (2 < turnover ≤ 10 million), medium (10 < turnover ≤ 50 million), and large cooperatives (turnover > 50 million) [2].