Social Co-ops

Description

John Restakis (from ch. 6 of: Humanizing the Economy:

"The rise of social co-ops and other forms of social enterprise has gained considerable attention since the glow of privatized care has lost some of its original lustre. In Canada, the failures of privatization in areas such as home care and long-term care were widely reported throughout the 1990s.

The current crisis of the free market model has also undermined calls for its extension in the public sector. (With the recent collapse of the financial and stock markets for example, how many would listen now to proposals for the privatization of social security?) The rise of social enterprise as a new, hybrid form of social care has been met with growing interest. In the co-operative sector, the emergence of social co-ops has been the most significant change to occur in the movement in thirty years. These are co-operatives whose purpose is the provision of Social Care, not only to their own members but also to the community as a whole. Their primary areas of activity have focused on services to marginalized populations, and to society’s most vulnerable groups. These developments signal a change in attitudes toward the market on the one hand and the role of government and the public sector on the other. Privatization is not the only way the market can be used to reform social care. There is a social alternative that reflects a shifting perception of how civil society must now relate to changing times. "

Discussion

Pat Conaty:

"In Europe and in North America we have strong Co-op sector good practice to build upon. What is fascinating at present and spreading internationally as a new tendency is the Multi-Stakeholder Co-op phenomenon. Known as either Social Co-ops or Solidarity Co-ops It has its roots in Northern Italy but it has spread to Spain, Portugal, France (still rather small there), Poland, Hungary and Quebec in Canada. Our colleague John Restakis has a wonderful chapter in his book Humanising the Economy on this movement. Mike Lewis and I also have a section on the Italian Social Co-ops in our book.

The key strategic point that I would emphasise here is that the Social Co-ops in Italy and the similar Quebec Solidarity Co-ops both unite and give political voice in a collaborative way to Commoners. Their strategic mission and indeed legal obligation by statute is the pursuit of the General Interest of Citizens and the securing of the Common Good, namely as I see it and as many of them demonstrate, the practical ways to build commonwealth and well being.

In Quebec there are now 500 Solidarity Co-ops and the unusual nature of this stakeholder Co-op (as opposed to traditional worker or consumer co-ops) is leading since 2008 to a mentality shift in Quebec. I heard last week from a Canadian co-op leader in Montreal that more than 9 out of 10 of new Co-ops formed in the past couple of years in Quebec province, are Solidarity Co-ops. That is a salient change in karma, it would appear." (email contribution, July 2013)