Call for papers: Co-operative Education online workshop (12 September 2023) and special number of 'Journal of Co-operative Studies'

With my colleagues Professor Esther Gicheru, Deputy Vice Chancellor Finance Planning & Administration, The Co-operative University of Kenya and Dr Cilla Ross, Honorary Professor Co-operative Education, University of Nottingham; Co-operative College UK; Journal of Co-operative Studies Advisory Board, I am arranging a workshop in September 2023 leading to a special number of the Journal of Co-operative Studies which considers co-operative education in its broadest sense – learning about co-operation, for co-operation, by co-operation, and through co-operation.

The call is pasted below and can be viewed here.

Key dates
12 June 2023	Deadline for short abstracts (300 words) and other proposals
12 September 2023	Online workshop
31 Ocotber 2023	Deadline for submission to special issue

Co-operative Education — Call for papers

Late-stage capitalism appears to have reached a point of permanent crisis: environmental catastrophe, nuclear war, and technological dystopias loom, against a backdrop of accelerated inequality, right-wing populism, global disparities and tensions and rampant racism. If capitalism is not replaced, it seems only to continue along apocalyptic scenarios; if it is to be replaced, the question is with what? An established alternative to capitalism exists: co-operation. 

In the fifth principle, education sat at the heart of the formal co-operative movement in the United Kingdom and wherever the Rochdale principles were transplanted. However, our approach here is to be as global in perspective as possible, to encompass co-operation in all its forms, iterations and understandings, including those outside the movement. Papers from the Global South and which decentre the Rochdale narrative are particularly welcome.

This online workshop and special issue of Journal of Co-operative Studies considers co-operative education in its broadest sense – learning about co-operation, for co-operation, by co-operation, and through co-operation. We are interested in co-operative education wherever it takes place: within co-operatives, Co-operative Schools, Co-operative Higher Education, co-operative workplaces, and without specifically co-operative contexts. Papers on how co-operatives are taught within non-co-operative contexts such as business schools will be of interest and also other spatial contexts such as the platform economy.

Potential topics for contributions to a special issue of the Journal of Co-operative Studies might include (but are not limited to):

• theorising co-operative education and other conceptual interventions;
• co-operative pedagogies theorised or applied in any context;
• the contribution of co-operatives to poverty alleviation, economic advancement and social transformation in the Global South;
• contrasting frameworks and institutional arrangements for facilitating, promoting and supporting co-operative education and development including the role of government (agencies);
• training within the co-operative movement;
• how co-operative education can respond to questions of cognitive justice;
• education for degrowth contra capitalist imperative of growth;
• any aspect of co-operative schools, colleges and universities;
• the place of co-operatives within mainstream education;
• how co-operative education can respond to the crises of late-stage capitalism;
• the role of co-operative education in economic and social transformations;
• the role of co-operative education in establishing the base upon which to estimate the success of co-operatives;
• how can co-operative education nurture youth empowerment and inspire a new generation to join the co-operative movement.

Format: The day conference will be online and based on pre-circulated papers of c. 2,500-word papers. Papers will need to be written in English. Authors will present briefly, summarising and reflecting on these with plenty of time for questions. Attendees will have read papers in advance. Proposals for other sessions, formats, interventions are welcomed. Papers will then be expanded for a special journal issue – either to shorter 2,000-4,000-word articles or full-length research pieces 4,000-7,000 words. This makes space for both conventional articles as well as provocations.