As well as a longstanding learner at the Co-op College, I’ve also been a member since it recently incorporated as a CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation). This was my first time though attending the College’s Education and Research conference, and AGM, held at Manchester Met University in early April – as a delegate from the Co-op Group.
The theme was ‘Learning for Co-operative Transformations’, with a focus on young people, community and societies. With a tremendous and eclectic range of presentations, workshops and panel discussions on offer over the two days there was plenty of choice for the members, delegates and visitors from across and beyond the UK co-op movement (including students from Mondragon University in the Basque country).
Keynote speakers included Lemn Sissay, poet and broadcaster, who gave a humorous and poignant account of his introduction to the co-op movement, his experience as a young child in care and the failures of the care system.
He observed that a lot of people enact the co-op ethos without knowing it, and that you get a lot of payback when reaching out to, engaging with and meeting the needs of those who are not familiar with your organisation – and who after including them often become your biggest promoters.
Some of the most interesting and thought-provoking sessions I went to included:
The co-operative economy in Rojava and Bakur
Exploring how a co-operative economy is being built through a pluralist social movement (the Tev Dem) in the autonomous Kursdish regions in Syria (one of their three cantons is Kobane). This bottom-up process is called Democratic Confederalism, with devolved decision-making starting from the commune level (a village or 30-400 households) and moving through the Neighbourhood to the whole city level. Creating co-ops at the commune level are the building blocks of what seems like an extraordinary attempt to create a new society based on co-operative ideals amidst regional war and chaos.
How we capture, accredit and evidence ‘co-operative character’
The starting point of this session was that whilst it is relatively easy to credential skills, doing this with character is more difficult because it is a virtue. The solution posited here was trough ‘open badges’, with meta data that was hardcoded into each digital badge. In the session we discussed what this might look like in terms of earners, issuers, what someone would have to do for it and why someone would want it. One possible answer to this in the context of the Co-op could be as a way to demonstrate suitability when standing for election to the Members’ Council or applying to be a Member Pioneer. It would also serve as a new way to conduct Principle 5 activity: member education and training.
Revealing Values
People involved in co-ops often talk about our ‘Values and Principles’ – the ‘V&P’ – referring of course to the codification of the original tenets of the Rochdale Pioneers by the International Co-operative Alliance. There’s the six co-operative values: self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, solidarity, equity, equality and the four ethical values: honesty, openness, social responsibility, and caring for others. According to the theory, these are then put into practice through application of the seven co-operative principles. So that’s 17 distinct ‘things’ involved in explaining what the model is all about – before you even get into definitions (the difference between ‘equity’ and ‘equality’ for example?
Tangibility can certainly be an issue when it comes to expressing the values – and from what I took away from this session that’s not surprising. The implication from this workshop by Magma Effect was that we need to think harder about what co-op values actually mean and how we talk about them. That’s because according to them values are an emotionally-laden abstract concept, located in the brain’s limbic system – which means they exist within us without words to describe them (they are uncoded, unconscious information). Values relate to how we feel about things, and as such are connected to our beliefs (which are defined as things we are highly certain about and which reflect our assumptions on the way the world works).
However, values are also contextual and responsive to our circumstances, shifting according to the pressures that we face. So what a human would value in one situation, eg living in a Western market economy with access to a welfare state would be different to someone in circumstances far less hospitable. Under the Minessence Values Framework used by Magma there are 128 human values. As co-operators we maybe need to think more about how we surface our values and are better able to make them resonate emotionally with people. This is important, as it is values aligned with beliefs that drives attitudes and behaviours. And if co-ops are all about changing the world – as well as meeting practical needs – then we need to be in the behaviour changing business as well.
Co-operative Schools and Co-operative Academies
These two sessions explored the role of co-op values and leadership in co-op schools (co-operative trust schools and co-op Academies) and the relentless Academisation process. The question posed about co-op schools was whether when you walk through the door whether it feels different. One of the key areas for leadership was in engaging stakeholders and building structures, with networks identified as representing the real power of the co-op movement. Although these networks were often hard to sustain, experimentation with successful networks is essential for the model of co-op schools to grows.
Despite current political debate around a return to grammar schools, 69% of secondary schools are now Academies, with more in the pipeline. Co-op Academies are a powerful alternative to Academy models based on philanthropists, do-gooders and private chains. A key question explored here however relates to the motivation behind becoming a co-operative Academy: is it a narrative of resistance or one of hope?
- changing to stay the same so it can carry on ‘doing the right thing’ as a co-op: ie a strategy of static self-preservation,
- seeking minimal change to the existing school ethos with ethical changes as a result of perceived marketization ameliorated through a co-op model
- embracing a dynamic model of transformational change: with adoption of the co-op model representing a positive, affirming and radical move
Of these three potential motivations it was suggested that the latter holds out the best prospect for fully realising the benefits of adopting the co-operative Academy model.