The Challenges of Co- operative Internationalisation in a Global Economy

Over-riding perspectives Structural and Social Shift? A Sea Change?

The theme of internationalisation is central to co-operatives but I think the issue needs to be considered much more thoroughly and extensively. The way it is typically understood as the expansion of a Eurocentric set of institutions is not adequate. Concern about institutional development only partly captures the realities.

It is really about the creation of knowledge, its collection, and its being made accessible. The challenge is how we can improve on each of these.

What are the issues that we address? What are the Mixes of methodologies we employ? What is distinctive and important about the knowledge we employ? What do we add? How do we see into international contexts? How do we balance what we have learned from an essentially Eurocentric experience with what we can understand about how the “Social Economy” currently works in other lands?

Why and how do people employ co-operative strategies and forms in response to social constructions of individual and community needs? How well do form and strategy reflect values? How does this compare to capitalist approaches? What do we add to analyses of capitalist experiences? What are the global differences?

Examples Reflections of, and engagement with, cultural and social realities Distinct governance and management issues Structures and associations Respecting and analysing the co-operative forms Deepening analyses of employees Comparative analysis Community/university engagement Membership issues

Nature of institutional dynamics as co- operatives change Evaluation Public policy issues Embracing collaborative research approaches and mutual validation between researchers and practitioners Developing career paths that are possible.