Young Scholars Workshop on Cooperatives and Cooperation

Different from investor-owned firms, the cooperative business model provides an alternative way of organizing the economy due to its unique ownership structure and democratic member control. Coming from a variety of disciplines and background, young scholars interested in cooperative research share the common ground that they are dedicated to searching solutions outside of the mainstream economic thinking. This characteristic brings young scholars in cooperative research home to the mission of the Young Scholars Initiative (YSI), which focuses on fostering young scholars with new and critical ways of thinking about the economy. It is not surprising that in the past, the YSI cooperatives and cooperation working group has successfully collaborated with the International Cooperative Alliance, the Committee on Cooperative Research from the (ICA-CCR) to jointly organize young scholars events.

To continue this initiative and to further connect young scholars and promote conversations, we propose a joint young scholars workshop between the YSI and the ICA-CCR European Research Conference hosted by the Humboldt University of Berlin.

Focusing on the role of cooperatives in the transformation of business and society, the ICA-CCR European Research Conference will expect around 120 presenters from 42 countries. Among the attendees, the conference expects 30 to 50 young scholars.

The targeted participants of this proposed workshop include the young scholars who will present their research during the ICA-CCR European Research Conference. In addition, we would also like to call for participation among members of the YSI working groups and other networks to attract young scholars in cooperative research.

The objective of the workshop is to connect young cooperative researchers and to discuss how to be healthy, motivated, and productive young scholars.