Toward historical alternative organization studies: Mythical imaginaries, social transformation, and domination degeneration in Dutch cooperative banking (1891–2023)

Responding to calls to overcome historical amnesia in alternative organization studies, this paper foregrounds myth as a neglected mechanism of social transformation. In contrast to the field’s essentialist focus on alternative values and ideologies, I examine how myth—understood as an empty signifier of alternativity—enables the transformation of hegemonic social imaginaries. Advancing a methodology of critical historical explanation, I analyze the Dutch cooperative banking movement’s historical use of myth between 1891 and 2023. I show how alternative organizations can universalize a foundational myth into a broader social imaginary that becomes intelligible and desirable to society at large, thereby institutionalizing their alternative imaginary within the state. While this study identifies an underexplored pathway to social transformation, it also highlights a largely overlooked form of degeneration: domination degeneration. Whereas existing accounts emphasize degeneration resulting from organizational weakness or failure, domination degeneration arises when organizations attempt to preserve overwhelming historical success and hegemonic closure in the face of renewed demands for alternativity.