[van-announce] Mapping Co-operative Studies in the New Millennium

[Mark Dickson]

Mapping Co-operative Studies in the New Millennium
Millennium
 

 
A Conference at the University of Victoria
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
May 28 – 31, 2003

Background 

 
Formal co-operative organisations, which today have over
700,000,000 members around the world, emerged in Europe
during the nineteenth century. Initially they were shaped,
as was co-operative thought largely by urban and rural
reactions to industrialisation. During the twentieth
century formal co-operative organisations became evident
throughout the world, sometimes as offspring of Empires,
sometime as resistors to empires, often as extensions of
informal co-operative activities evident in all cultures.
Co-operative thought and research, however, struggled to
find a place in the academy and intellectual space amid the
dominant ideologies of the twentieth century. 

The new millennium, coinciding with major shifts in the
role of the state, rethinking of priorities within research
organisations, concerns about the future of civil society,
the challenges of technological change and international
economic trends, offers an opportunity for a deepening
examination of the roles of co-operative thought and
organisations in contemporary life. 

Scope of the Conference 

This international conference will bring together
researchers interested in the research field of
Co-operative Studies. It will be a three day conference
organized into sessions concerned with reviewing the
current state of research in the field of Co-operative
Studies; the nature of Co-operative Studies; and the
perspectives of students, co-operative leaders, public
officials, and others on the possibilities of Co-operative
Studies. 

Some of the questions to be considered in exploring the
current state of Co-operative Studies are: what are the
strengths and weaknesses of the field? what are its
greatest needs? where are the most obvious opportunities?
how do co-operative researchers in different countries
carry out their work? What are the differences among Asian,
Latin American, European and North American researchers in
how they view co-operatives? What are the key differences
within those regions? 

In examining the nature of Co-operative Studies some of the
questions to be considered are: what are the central issues
of the field? what kinds of new methodologies can help
advance the field? what kinds of effective partnerships are
there with older disciplines? with new interdisciplinary
programmes? what can we learn from the experience of other
interdisciplinary initiatives, such as Environmental and
Women's Studies? 

A feature of the conference is that it will provide
opportunities for co-operative leaders and for graduate and
undergraduate students who have demonstrable established
interest in co-operatives to present their ideas on the
current state and future possibilities for Co-operative
Studies. Among the questions they will explore are: what
are the issues within Co-operative Studies that are or
particular importance from their viewpoints? what are the
best ways to expand the study of co-operatives? how can
Co-operative Studies research be most effectively
communicated? 

Location 

Victoria, a city of 400,000 is located on the southern tip
of Vancouver Island. Its airport is a 15 minute flight away
from the Vancouver airport and 40 minutes from the Seattle
airport. Frequent ferries connect Victoria to the British
Columbia mainland near Vancouver and to ferry terminals 3
hours from Seattle (all the ferry trips are about 1 ½ hour
sailing time). Vancouver Island in the spring is delightful
place to spend a holiday. 

Conference Accommodation 

Please note: Participants are responsible for booking their
own accommodation. 

Click here for accommodation details.


Organisation of the Conference 

The administration for the conference is provided by the
British Columbia Institute for Co-operative Studies.
Decisions regarding acceptance of proposals and
organisation of sessions was done through an organising
committee including: Mr. Akira Kurimoto, Consumer
Co-operative Institute of Japan and Chair of the
International Co-operative Research Committee; Professor
Mirta Vuotto of the University of Buenos Aires; Professor
Daniel Côté of Hautes Études Commerciales in Montréal; Dr.
Mahdav Madane of the Indian Society for Co-operative
Studies in Pune, India; and Professor Roger Spear of the
Open University of the United Kingdom. 

Sponsors 

Funding for this conference will be sought from a number of
foundations and organisations. Every effort will be made to
help participants as much as possible. Suggestions for
funding would be appreciated. If a presenter can fund his
or her own way to the conference, in whole or in part, it
would be appreciated so that as much funding as possible
can be secured to assist those researchers coming from
institutions and parts of the world in which travel funds
are very limited or in currencies that make travel to
Canada prohibitively expensive. 

 

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Yours for the New Society, 

Mark Dickson

(604) 584-0978
"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important." - Bertrand Russell, in Work and Recreation


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