Workshop: “Co-operation as Coordination Mechanism: consequences on the interpretation of the cooperative enterprise”

On December 4th and 5th the international workshop organized by EURICSE and entitled “Co-operation as Coordination Mechanism: consequences on the interpretation of the cooperative enterprise“, organized by Euricse, was held at the Department of Sociology and Social Research in Trento. The workshop, organized by Carlo Borzaga and Ermanno Tortia, convened approximately thirty scholars from around the world, including Johnston Birchall (Stirling University), Murray Fulton (Saskatchewan University), Anna Grandori (Bocconi University), and Lorenzo Sacconi (Trento University).

The topic was the nature and economic role of co-operation, interpreted both in general as a mechanism for the coordination of economic activity in different social contexts, and as a form of coordination of the activity within cooperatives, social enterprises and other non-profit organizations. Furthermore, the role of co-operation as a coordination mechanism in non-mutualistic and non-social organizational forms (i.e. in for-profit companies and in the public sector) was also explored.

The workshop featured a series of presentations, each followed by a broad discussion, which the participants found to be very stimulating. The works presented lay the groundwork for a new scientific program in the study of socio-economic systems and of the organizations that populate them, focusing and shedding light on the nature and contribution of cooperation in socio-economic development in a more precise and effective way than what has been done to date. Indeed, the focus on cooperation highlights and analyzes a series of elements and causal relationships that are relevant to human behavior and economic institutions, but have often been neglected by resarch.