2012 international year of the co-op

Co-operatives are a reminder to the international community that it is possible to pursue both economic viability and social responsibility.
- Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General

It is with joy and hope that I am celebrating this year, the international year of the co-op as recognized by the United Nations. Co-ops are an important economic option, and alternative to the corporate capitalism that is dominating our society and destroying our planet.

The goal of the International Cooperative Association, the organization that worked to make the UN adopt 2012 as the internationally, is to use this year to promote cooperatives in the public eye. Their vision and hope is that if cooperatives can be seen more broadly as the viable and values-based enterprises that they are this can lay the groundwork for tremendous growth in the utilization of the co-op model. Using this year as a springboard the hope is that by 2020 co-ops will be the fastest growing sector of the global economy.

Co-ops are values-based organizations. Among the values at their core is the value of community. We generally focus on their economic function but in their very definition is their purpose of meeting social and cultural needs and aspirations as well. The so-called seventh principle of cooperatives is concern for community. Beyond theory, we find that cooperatives naturally function as nexus of community.

As part of the celebration of international year of the co-op, I am honored to launch and offer up this blog. I have for some time intended to start a blog about the patchwork of communities in and around my life.