Learning from Cooperatives in the Global Crisis

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* Book: Capital and the Debt Trap. Learning from Cooperatives in the Global Crisis. By Claudia Sanchez Bajo and Bruno Roelants. Palgrave MacMillan (2013)

URL = http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=688814


Description

"The recent financial crisis has had a devastating impact around the globe. Thousands of businesses have closed down and millions of jobs have been cut. Many people have lost their homes. Capital and the Debt Trap explains how key economies have fallen into a ‘debt trap’, linking the financial sphere to the real economy, and goes beyond, looking into alternatives to the constant stream of financial bubbles and shocks. Overlooked by many,cooperatives across the world have been relatively resilient throughout the crisis. Through four case studies (the transformation of a French industrial SME in crisis into a cooperative, a fishery cooperative in Mexico, the Desjardins Cooperative Group in Quebec and the Mondragon Group in the Basque country of Spain), the book explores their strategies and type of control, providing an in-depth analysis within a broader debate on wealth generation and a sustainable future."

Discussion

Vandana Shiva:

"Both nature and society work on the principles of co-operation. In CAPITAL AND THE DEBT TRAP - Learning from Cooperatives in the Global Crisis Bruno Roelants and Claudia Sanchez Bajo show us how an economy based on co-operation can address the deep crisis we face.”


More Information

  1. blog athttp://www.capital-and-the-debt-trap.com/
  2. facebook https://www.facebook.com/Capital.and.the.Debt.trap


About the authors

  • Claudia Sanchez Bajo, PhD in Development Studies (ISS, The Hague), is Chair in Cooperative Enterprises at the University of Winnipeg, Canada. She previously taught in The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, China and several Latin American countries at pre-graduate and MA levels, and published among other titles: "The political Economy of Regionalism - Business Actors in Mercosur in the Petrochemical and Steel Sectors" (2001) and contributed to the book "The Political Economy of Regions and Regionalism" (Shaw, Boas and Marchand. Eds., Palgrave 2005).
  • Bruno Roelants, Master in Labour Studies (ISS, The Hague), is Secretary General of CICOPA, the sectoral organization of the International Cooperative Alliance for industrial, handicraft and service cooperatives, and its European organization CECOP CICOPA-Europe. He was previously responsible for cooperativedevelopment projects in China, India and Central and Eastern Europe. He coordinated the cooperative organisations in the negotiations in 2001-2002 in Geneva on the ILO Recommendation 193 on the promotion of cooperatives. He has taught on cooperatives and local development in Italy. He has edited "Cooperatives and Social Enterprises – Governance and Normative Frameworks" (CECOP, 2009), and is a co-author of "Cooperatives, Territories and Jobs" (CECOP, 2011).