In July 2018, the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) European Research Conference will be held in the Netherlands. In a cooperative effort, five Dutch universities, the Netherlands Cooperative Council (NCR) and ICA Research Committee Europe are organizing ICA2018.  Dr Jos Bijman, project leader of the Global Challenges Programme project LIQUID, is chair  of the 12 persons Programme Committee of the International Cooperative Alliance and hosts this year’s Conference on cooperatives in Wageningen.

At the ICA2018 conference, scholars, representatives of cooperatives and policy makers will exchange the state of the art on building and strengthening cooperatives in different sectors and different countries.

Resilient cooperatives

The key questions to be discussed at the ICA2018 Research Conference relate to innovation in enterprise and community. For the sustainability and resilience of the cooperative model, innovation is paramount. Which internal and external factors provide the fertile ground for such innovation? What are the key success factors for continuous (or renewed) member commitment and stakeholder legitimacy?

Main theme of the conference

Main theme of the conference is: Cooperatives in a rapidly changing world: Innovation in Enterprise and Community.

Under this overarching theme, the conference will address a wide range of topics, including:

• Innovations in internal governance
• The rise of producer organisations
• Resilience and sustainability of the cooperative model
• Strengthening member commitment
• Financial and sustainability performance
• Cooperative education
• Statistics on cooperatives
• Cooperatives and changing labour relations
• Cooperatives and big data

The conference will deal with all kinds of cooperatives, from different sectors and different countries and in different stages of the life cycle. This will lead to challenging and surprising new ideas and relations. Special attention will be paid to 200 years Raiffeisen.

More information

Please visit the website of Wageningen UR.