Co-op News (August 2019)
What is co-operative culture - and why does it matter? This issue looks at how co-op values intersect with the values in organisations, across movements and between countries. Plus 100 years of the Channel Islands Co-operative – and how the new Coop Exchange app is tackling the capital conundrum.
What is co-operative culture - and why does it matter? This issue looks at how co-op values intersect with the values in organisations, across movements and between countries. Plus 100 years of the Channel Islands Co-operative – and how the new Coop Exchange app is tackling the capital conundrum.
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CO-OP CULTURE &<br />
RELIGION<br />
BY ANCa VOINEA<br />
GEORGE JACOB<br />
HOLYOAKE<br />
Around the world, religious groups<br />
are setting up co-<strong>op</strong>eratives to provide<br />
services for their local communities –<br />
which is fitting, because the co-<strong>op</strong> values<br />
of equality, social responsibility and<br />
caring for others resonate with the values<br />
of different faiths.<br />
In his 1996 Background Paper to the<br />
1995 Statement of <strong>Co</strong>-<strong>op</strong>erative Identity,<br />
Ian MacPherson noted that co-<strong>op</strong>eratives<br />
around the world “have devel<strong>op</strong>ed<br />
within a rich array of belief systems,<br />
including all the world’s great religions<br />
and ideologies”.<br />
And while Christian or Muslim<br />
communities are setting up credit unions<br />
as ethical alternatives to traditional<br />
banking institutions or payday lenders,<br />
secularists are ad<strong>op</strong>ting co-<strong>op</strong>eration as<br />
a substitute for religion.<br />
A 2016 report by the University of Bristol<br />
found that faith values are important to<br />
how and why faith organisations engage<br />
in providing assistance, activism or<br />
advocating alternative forms of finance,<br />
and these tend to drive holistic and<br />
personal approaches to addressing<br />
pe<strong>op</strong>le’s needs. According to the research,<br />
faith values can overlap with other faith<br />
and ethical values to enable successful<br />
forms of collaboration with others in<br />
relation to welfare, campaigning and<br />
devel<strong>op</strong>ing more ethical approaches<br />
t ofi n a n c e .<br />
Now famous all over the world for its<br />
federation of worker co-<strong>op</strong>eratives, the<br />
Mondragon co-<strong>op</strong>erative movement was<br />
founded by Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta,<br />
a Catholic priest who wanted to help u<br />
32 | AUGUST <strong>2019</strong><br />
AUGUST <strong>2019</strong> | 29