Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management 1 (2013) 47–48
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Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management
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New opportunities for co-operatives: New opportunities for people
The Ruralia Institute of the University of Helsinki had the honor
of hosting the 2011 ICA Global Research Conference in the city of
Mikkeli (Finland). Such global research conferences take place
every second year. They are organized by the Committee on Co-
operative Research of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA)
in collaboration with a host organization.
The global and the regional ICA research committees (for
Africa, the Americas, Asia and Pacific, as well as for Europe
respectively), working alongside a number of sectoral commit-
tees, have been compensating for the relatively poor interest in
co-operative research and have been bridging the divide between
co-operative practitioners and the research community for many
years. In line with their nature as research committees and with
the multi-facetted nature of cooperatives, they embrace all
disciplines.
As a member of the organizing and scientific committees, chair
of a working group, and a co-editor of the proceedings book of the
2011 ICA Global Research Conference, I received the honor of being
invited to write a review of the Conference for the Journal of Co-
operative Organization and Management (JCOM). Given that
essential contributions were collected to the proceedings book, I
decided to make this a review of the proceedings (see Heiskanen,
Henrÿ, Hytinkoski, & Köppä (2012).
The proceedings assemble a selection of the papers presented at
the Mikkeli conference. In accordance with the objectives of the
research committees the selection of the articles was also done
with the aim of not limiting the readership to a specific group,
especially not to either practitioners or researchers. The proceed-
ings editors believe that the majority of the articles may be read by
anyone interested in co-operatives; some might require however
specific knowledge. They certainly hope that researchers, educa-
tors and students find them informative and thought stimulating.
In order to understand this selection of circa one fourth of the
papers presented at the Conference and the outline of the
proceedings book it is important to understand the peculiar
nature of the ICA and to know about the background of the
conference.
Background
The ICA was founded in 1895 and may be considered as the
oldest and biggest international NGO in the world. Through its
member organizations, mainly second and third tier co-operatives
and mutual societies, the ICA and its four regional organizations
represent and reach out to some one billion members of first tier
co-operatives of all types and sizes in all sectors and in virtually all
countries. The ICA enjoys special status within the United Nations
system (UN). It has, for example, a right to speak at all official
meetings of the bodies of the International Labor Organization
2213-297X/$ – see front matter
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcom.2013.06.001
(ILO). This is of particular importance as the ILO has engaged in the
development of co-operatives since the start of its operations in
1920 and as the International Labor Conference integrated the
1995 ICA Statement on the co-operative identity (ICA Statement)
into the only universal legal international instrument on coopera-
tives, namely the ILO Promotion of Cooperatives Recommendation,
2002 (ILO R.193). The definition of co-operatives, as well as the co-
operative values and principles enshrined in the ICA Statement
have shaped the identity of co-operatives and have become the
yardstick by which to assess public and private measures related to
co-operatives over the past 120 years. Through the ILO R. 193 these
criteria have also become a legal guide for legislators.
The ICA considered the 2011 Global Research Conference as its
first activity to celebrate the International Year of Co-operatives
(IYC) 2012, which the UN General Assembly had declared in 2009.
The presence at the Conference of high level representatives of the
ICA, the ILO and the UN, i.e. those international organizations
which together with the Food and Agricultural Organization of the
UN (FAO) had prepared the declaration of the IYC and who through
their Committee on the Promotion and Advancement of Coop-
eratives (COPAC) coordinated activities throughout the YIC
underlined the importance of the event at a time when many of
the assumptions of economics and social sciences are being put to
a test.
The proceedings
The title of the published Proceedings ‘‘New Opportunities for
Co-operatives: New Opportunities for People’’ diverges from the
title of the conference, which was ‘‘New Opportunities for
Cooperatives’’. It also diverges from a suggestion made by the
Deputy Director of the host, namely ‘‘New co-operatives:
opportunities for people’’. This latter title would have probably
reflected even better the current spirit of co-operatives than the
one chosen for the publication: solidly grounded in the past, co-
operatives are ready to confront the challenges of the global
present. However, this title might have been construed by many as
putting the burden of innovation exclusively on the co-operatives
themselves. It could have sent a wrong signal at a moment when
governments, academia and other stakeholders start accepting
again that one of the most serious stumbling blocks on the way to
the development of a plural and diverse enterprise world remains
co-operatives not being seen and dealt with as one among many
types of enterprises with a right to equal, i.e. co-operative adequate
treatment.
As explained in the Introduction of the proceedings book, the
editors did not reproduce the selected papers by the themes of the
working groups into which the conference divided. While also
trying to balance the thematic emphases of the working groups,
48 New opportunities for co-operatives / Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management 1 (2013) 47–48
geographical and cultural backgrounds of the presenters and of the
sectors, the editors arranged the papers on a time line and
according to the criterion of adaptation of co-operatives to new
circumstances and requirements. The first is to demonstrate the
ubiquity of the phenomenon of co-operatives, which is possibly a
feature with which the challenges of the global world may be
addressed effectively. The latter is to demonstrate that the image of
co-operatives as being active in marginal sectors and populated by
members of marginal strata of society is itself outdated, but that
the specific characteristics of new co-operatives need attending to,
if co-operatives are to successfully play their role in a changed
socio-politico-economic environment.
The opening session sets the stage in this sense: Three articles
address the changed welfare system with its new demands on all
actors and the need for economics and other sciences to think out
of the boxes they continue hiding in.
Chapter 1 on ‘‘The idea of co-operatives, its history and journey
throughout the world’’ shows through five articles how the co-
operative idea traveled and continues to travel the world over,
adjusting to the rich variety of cultures and political circumstances,
if not adversities at times, and inspiring those who are ready to
learn from their fellow co-operators, wherever they are. The
chapter delivers arguments for the fact that beneath the
differences there is enough common ground to make a single
set of cooperative values and principles work everywhere.
Chapter 2 on ‘‘Co-operative management, other organizational
issues and legal frameworks’’ with its seven articles makes it
immediately clear that co-operatives are not about ideas only; they
are about making ideas work in the form of a specific type of
enterprise, which requires specific management skills and a
specific legal framework. For the first time in the history of the ICA
research conferences a large number of papers on co-operative law
(eight) were presented. This signals a revival of co-operative legal
science. Indeed, the number of doctoral dissertations on co-
operative law is increasing; after decades an overview of the
world’s co-operative laws is to be published soon (see Cracogna,
Fici, & Henrÿ, 2013). Earlier works date from the 1930ies and
1950ies (see Digby, 1933; Valko, 1954).
Chapter 3 on ‘‘Co-operative financial institutions’’ with three
articles depicts a particularly successful sector which has shown
resilience to market shocks for the second time in less than 100
years. The resilience demonstrates that the cooperative form of
doing business is competitive even when assessed on the terms of
other enterprise types. This conclusion confirms preliminary
studies and it has itself been confirmed by a number of papers
presented at a conference organized in March 2012 by EURICSE,
the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social
Enterprises and the ICA (see Birchall, 2013; Euricse, 2013). This
is not to say that the sector were without problems. They are
however rather caused by the difficulties of clients than by the
cooperative institutions themselves. The articles make this clear.
Chapter 4 on ‘‘Sustainable development and co-operatives’’
addresses through four articles the now universally accepted
development paradigm of sustainability which the International
Court of Justice has recognized as a concept of international law.
At first sight, the themes gathered in this chapter, from renewable
energy and green jobs to education and democracy, seem to be
unrelated. The sustainable development paradigm is however
exactly this: the mutual interdependence and reciprocal regener-
ation of various aspects, namely economic security, ecological
balance, social justice and political stability. Education and
democracy are central to the goal of sustainable development.
Chapter 5 on ‘‘Social enterprises’’ comprises five articles. It
situates cooperatives in the wider, emerging framework of the
social and solidarity economy and enterprises. A number of
cooperatives would not agree to them being categorized therein.
On the other hand, many see themselves at the very heart of the
social and solidarity economy. The editors did not intend to take
sides, but to address a phenomenon, the enterprise actors of which
share many of their basic features with cooperatives. This is
especially true for the objective to not let the economic and the
social drift apart. This objective matters for political stability. The
respective papers could therefore also have been included in the
chapter on sustainable development. The sole article of the
concluding Chapter 6 answers the title of the chapter ‘‘Where to go
from here?’’ It brings it all together by putting emphasis on the
‘‘teaching about cooperatives’’. Self-understood: teaching based on
research, research based on data, hard and soft, as they mix in co-
operatives.
The future
I am a lawyer, but I put great value on contributions across
disciplines. I hope that co-operative research and its application to
practice remains multidisciplinary. Interdiciplinarity can on the
other hand be seen as one of the strengths of co-operative research
and the movement. I also hope that more of the interdisciplinary
contributions will find their way into scientific journals, such as
this one. We do need strong research and its publication. Even if co-
operatives have a long history, they still are a new opportunity for
researchers in various fields of study.
References
Birchall, J. (2013). Resilience in a downturn: The power of financial cooperatives. Geneva:
International Labour Office (ILO).
Cracogna, D., Fici, A., & Henrÿ, H. (Eds.). (2013). International handbook of cooperative
law. Heidelberg: Springer. (in press).
Digby, M. (1933). Digest of cooperative law at home and abroad. London: Horace Plunkett
Foundation.
Euricse. (2013). Promoting the understanding of cooperatives for a better world http://
www.euricse.eu/en/node/2208.
Heiskanen, J., Henrÿ, H., Hytinkoski, P., & Köppä, T. (2012). In Proceedings of the 2011 ICA
Global Research Conference, vol. 27 389 pp. http://www.helsinki.fi/ruralia/julkaisut/
pdf/Publications27.pdf.
Valko, L. (1954). International handbook of cooperative legislation. State College of
Washington.
Hagen Henrÿ*
Ruralia Institute, University of Helsinki, Lönnrotinkatu 7,
50100 Mikkeli, Finland
*Tel.: +358 9 1911; fax: +358 9 19121300
E-mail address: henry@mappi.helsinki.fi
Received 6 June 2013
Accepted 6 June 2013