The integration of remote workers into the governing bodies of cooperatives in Brazil
Abstract
Remote interaction, especially given the connectivity through digital technologies that structure informationalism as a new form of capitalist development, has become an unavoidable social reality. Consequently, cooperation has also been affected by the possibility of remote interactions, most evidently during the COVID-19 pandemic. This new reality has impacted cooperatives’ general assemblies and meetings, requiring regulatory changes that consider a digital and remote logic. It is in this context that this descriptive article, based on bibliographic and documentary references, seeks to present how Brazil developed its legal texts to allow the remote holding of general assemblies and meetings of its governing bodies. To this end, the article contextualizes democratic participation up to the COVID-19 pandemic and then presents the legal and regulatory changes that enabled remote democratic participation, even after the end of the health emergency. Finally, the article reflects on the positive aspects of these changes, considering the current challenges related to the lack of reflection on the virtuality of social actions, one of the causes of low member participation in general assemblies of Brazilian cooperatives.
Received: 7 July 2025
Accepted: 25 September 2025
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