Dragonomics

The proposition

Make co-operative enterprise a mainstream part of Welsh economic development.

Co-operatives can create businesses, strengthen productive capability and give members a meaningful stake in the prosperity they generate. The economic case must lead: firms need customers, investment, innovation and the capacity to sustain their activities.

Dragonomics examines how Wales can connect democratic ownership with practical commercial support. Succession is one route; new enterprise and the growth of existing co-operatives deserve equal attention.

What the briefing argues

Evidence and examples

The briefing draws on Mondragon in Spain’s Basque Country, the co-operative economy of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, the Greslab worker buyout and Wales’s South Caernarfon Creameries. These examples illustrate different ways to connect ownership, specialist expertise, finance and markets.

It distinguishes democratic worker co-operatives from wider employee ownership and producer co-operatives. Evidence about one model should not be assumed to apply to all. The full PDF contains the evidence, qualifications, five recommendations, ownership-model appendix and 32 references.

Citing this publication

Husain, S. (2026). Dragonomics: A Cooperative Strategy for Economic Transformation in Wales. Frontier Briefing, updated October 2026. Originally published 3 March 2025.

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