Italy’s Emilia Romagna Clustering Co-op Development

Recent cooperative development in the northern Italian region of Emilia Romagna can be broken down into three time periods. First,the postwar era (1945-1965) of rebuilding cooperative structures and clustering cooperative development. Second, the growing interaction of the cooperatives with the regional economic policy. In the 1970s the national government of Italy empowered the regions of Italy with greater economic autonomy. Third, the massive entry of cooperatives in the social sector in the 1990s.