Participation of members in cooperatives is essential if they are to remain
democratic and responsive, yet there is a surprising lack of theory as to why, and
under what circumstances, people participate. This article identifies different
types of participation, and considers the possibility of deriving a theoretical
model from existing literature. Having reviewed related literatures on political,
economic and community participation, it finds a need to go back to basic social
psychological theories with which to build up useful theory. Two theoretical
models are presented: an individualistic theory from George Homans, and
a mutual theory from Pitrim Sorokin. These are elaborated in relation to
cooperatives; the individualistic theory is found to be useful where members
have an instrumental attitude, but the mutual one is shown to be muchricher in
explanatory value, and to point to ways participation can be improved.
