Territoriality and Cooperation in Credit Cooperative Banks: A Case Study Among Young Members in Rome and Ravennate

In the 1940s arose the idea that economic development needed to be fostered in its multidimensionality, considering not only the economic but also the cultural, social and educational variables that spontaneously affect a person’s well-being and promote development. These new developmental processes gave rise to considerable tools and organization based on a new cultural logic and values like solidarity, democratic participation, agency and cooperation. An example is the Credit Cooperative Banks (CCBs), whose social capital consists of the values mentioned. Among the various principles, one of the most important is territoriality, a tool, among other things, to concretize the principle of cooperation by strengthening the relations between members, territory and banks. With this aim, some Italian CCBs created a group of Young Members divided into Territorial praesidium. The present contribution aims to present some results of a research conducted in Italy in 2023 within the CCB of Rome with the Young Members Laboratory and the CCB of Ravennate with the Young Members Committee. Using qualitative methods of research - such as semi-structured interviews with the young members and brief observational participation - the goals were to investigate how the CCBs and the young members put into practice the principles of cooperation and territoriality if the young members interiorize the two principles and pose as a socially transformative resource for a specific context.

The results highlight the importance of the territorial principle for the banks and the young members, the essentiality of the role of the Territorial praesidium, and the deep interiorization of the young members of these principles. In this sense, young members assume the role of transformative resource for the territory and represent the bond between banks and specific contexts despite the multiple challenges.