The cooperative enterprise has seemed, to many contemporary 'green' theorists, to be a socially
sustainable economic alternative to conventional corporate capitalism, based on the ideas of
grassroots participation, democracy, egalitarianism, community, social equity and
empowerment. I argue, however, that there has been no attempt in 'green' thought to analyze
gender relations within the cooperative enterprise. Instead, 'green' theorists view the cooperative
as a homogeneous social entity with a shared subjectivity; and assume that the cooperative's
'sustainable' attributes - decentralized, democratic, and equitable principles - will ensure gender
equity and empowerment through social sustainability. Reviewing 'green' theories of
cooperatives and social sustainability, this thesis challenges 'green' interpretations of
participation and social sustainability that ignore members' gendered identities, relations, and
interests, particularly in resource-dependent communities. 'Green' definitions of participation
have tended to narrowly focus on access to the cooperative without paying attention to
cooperative member dynamics. By focusing attention on the nuances of participation and the
implications for equity and empowerment, this thesis explores the complexities and
contradictions of gender and participation as they apply to a mixed-gender community resource
cooperative on Malcolm Island, British Columbia. Using a labour-knowledge-authority
framework, the case study of the Malcolm Island Community Resource Cooperative (MICRC)
illustrates that while the cooperative may be socially sustainable according to 'green' community
and social economic ideals, actual participation in the cooperative enterprise is more complex,
contradictory, and gendered than 'green' thought has typically assumed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/11908 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Pullen, Mary MacLaren |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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