WhatsApp as the informal information system of SSE cooperatives: digital divide and digital practices in rural Morocco

Abstract

The digital transition of social and solidarity economy (SSE) organizations has become an explicit objective of Moroccan public policy, reaffirmed by the 5th national SSE conference held in Benguerir in June 2025 and embedded in framework bill No. 17.26. Yet little is known about the actual digital practices of rural cooperatives. This article draws on an exploratory survey conducted in March and April 2026 among 19 cooperatives in the province of Tiznit (Souss-Massa region). The findings reveal a paradoxical configuration. On the one hand, formal management remains pre-digital: only 3 of 19 cooperatives (16%) use a spreadsheet, bookkeeping is handwritten or non-formalized everywhere else, and only one structure has a quality fixed connection. On the other hand, WhatsApp is used by all cooperatives (19 out of 19), 16 of 19 (84%) of them intensively for orders, member coordination and buyer relations. WhatsApp thus operates as the de facto information system of these organizations: informal, voice-based and free, it simultaneously bypasses the equipment deficit and illiteracy, since in 11 of 19 cooperatives (58%), fewer than 40% of members can read. Building on multi-level digital divide frameworks (DiMaggio & Hargittai, 2001; van Dijk, 2005; Scheerder et al., 2017) and on research on mobile appropriation in the Global South (Aker & Mbiti, 2010; Donner, 2015), the article proposes the notion of bottom-up digital inclusion. It draws implications for the design of management tools and voice-based artificial intelligence in Darija and Tachelhit, as well as for the digital component of SSE support policies. Given the small sample size (N = 19) and its convenience-based recruitment, these proportions are strictly exploratory and descriptive and cannot be generalized beyond the territory studied.

Classification JEL : O15, O33, P13, Q13

Paper type : Empirical Research