Decolonizing our Imaginaries: Critical Approaches to Cooperative Studies

Introduction

In 2025, the international cooperative community will celebrate a special milestone as it designates the second International Year of Cooperatives in less than 20 years. This unique designation highlights cooperatives’ pivotal role in promoting socio-economic development, sustainability, and community resilience worldwide. The ICA CCR Young and Emerging Scholars (YES) Network, together with the working group on Cooperatives from the Young Scholar Initiative (YSI) of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) and in collaboration with HEC University of Montreal, would like to organize a workshop dedicated to empower early career researchers in the field of cooperatives by providing them with valuable insights and opportunities to present their research, network with other peers, and showcase their work.

The field of cooperative research is growing in prominence, taking on increased urgency as we seek to address the challenges posed by traditional scholarly narratives, such as in economics, management, agriculture, climate studies, and, more broadly, social sciences. However, in different sectorial departments, it is still challenging to make cooperative scholars’ voices heard and valorize them. Within this context, the workshop can empower and connect emergent scholars who grapple with the complexities of conducting research in this expanding domain.

Young Scholars will gather for an informal dinner on the evening of Sunday, July 6th at the social cooperative Batiment 7, where a guided tour of the cooperative and a discussion with its member will start immersing young and emerging scholars into the cooperative spirit.

The workshop will take place on July 7th. The central theme of the workshop is decolonizing cooperatives, addressing historical inequalities, and empowering marginalized communities. Special guests, such as Prof. Marcelo Vieta and Prof Simon Teasdale will offer valuable perspectives and insights on this topic, enriching the discussion and inspiring future research endeavors. The focus will be on new radical and innovative ways of thinking about cooperatives, how can coop support improving sustainability standards, the definition of economic and political democracy and the role of cooperatives in pushing democracy. We will focus on how to decolonize our language when we do research on cooperative.