▶ Four parts:

1. Take a step back and look at the origins and nature of our human capacity to co-operate for common good

2. The ‘Big Society’ – what is meant by the ‘Big Society’ – the three sectors of a mature economy

3. An introduction to the Co-operative movement, its origins and the scale of Co-operative enterprise nationally and internationally

4. A critique of ‘Big Society’ rhetoric and reality

‘The Third Estate’ The Co-operative Party 1999

Take a step back into dangerous territory and look at the nature of human society (“Big” and small):

Take a step back into dangerous territory and look at the nature of human society (“Big” and small):

▶ Two fundamental, scientific, views of the nature of human society:o Huxley/Darwin – nature is “red in tooth and claw”,

naturally competitive.o Kropotkin – nature is essentially co-operative –

species survive and thrive through co-operating with each other.

▶Theological views?o Determinist – total submission to the will of the deityo Redemptionist – humankind has fallen from divine

grace, through original sin, and can only be redeemed by repentance and acceptance of divine law and order

Competition v. Co-operationCompetition v. Co-operationnature is nasty v. nature is nice

Darwin/Huxley = mankind’s natural state is constant conflict unless tamed by society, nature is fundamentally red in tooth and

clawKropotkin/Russeau = mankind is a noble

savage, corrupted by human society, nature is fundamentally co-operative

the third estate

The prisoner’s dilemma - the classical problem in Game Theory:Two suspects are arrested by the police. The police have insufficient evidence for a conviction, and, having separated the prisoners, visit each of them to offer the same deal: If one testifies for the prosecution against the other (defects) and the other remains silent (co-operates), the defector goes free and the silent accomplice receives the full 10-year sentence. If both remain silent, both prisoners are sentenced to only six months in jail for a minor charge. If each betrays the other, each receives a five-year sentence. Each prisoner must choose to betray the other or to remain silent. Each one is assured that the other would not know about the betrayal before the end of the investigation. How should the prisoners act?

the third estate

The classical prisoner's dilemma can be summarized thus:

In this game, regardless of what the opponent chooses, each player always receives a higher payoff (lesser sentence) by betraying; that is to say that betraying is the strictly dominant strategy.

the third estate

Prisoner B Stays Silent Prisoner B Betrays

Prisoner A Stays Silent Each serves 6 monthsPrisoner A: 10 yearsPrisoner B: goes free

Prisoner A BetraysPrisoner A: goes freePrisoner B: 10 years

Each serves 5 years

Game theory and the iterative prisoner’s dilemma: Individuals tend to behave in one of 4 ways:

HedonistsSuckersDefectorsGenuine Co-operators

Marcus Frean at Cambridge University has shown, in his Game Theory programme ‘Firm but Fair’ that Co-operators always win in a series of iterative interactions of indeterminate length.

the third estate

Trust is the currency of co-operation

Co-operation depends on a series of human interactions

Co-operation is hard wired into our genes

Matt Ridley: the Origins of Virtue“The roots of social order are in our heads, where we possess the instinctive capacities for creating not a perfectly harmonious and virtuous society, but a better one than we have at present. We must build our institutions in such a way that they draw out those instincts. Just as trade between countries is the best recipe for friendship between them, so exchange between empowered and enfranchised individuals is the best recipe for co-operation … that is the raw material of trust and trust is the foundation of virtue.”

the third estate

Matt Ridley: the Origins of Virtue

“Human beings have some instincts that foster the greater good and others that foster self-interested and anti social behaviour. We must design a society that encourages the former and discourages the latter.”

the third estate

It is: “a radical Third Way of looking at social and economic policy issues. It is founded on the valuable insights evolutionary biology has given us into the origins of human virtue and co-operation. It also permits us to enter into a new political debate, one that seeks to redefine the role of politics and government and to define, in a new way, the appropriate role for and power of the state as that which encourages mutual social and economic outcomes”David Rodgers: The Third Estate 1999

the third estate

altruism is the pinnacle of humanity's capacity to

act co-operatively for the

benefit of others

George Price and the Price Equation:the Secondary Theorem of Natural Selection

…. everyone has a stake based on equal rights and where they pay their dues by exercising responsibility in return, and where local communities shape their own futures.

“Too much has been imposed from above, when experience shows that success depends on communities themselves having the power and taking the responsibility.

It’s no good officials in Whitehall or even the Town Hall telling people what is needed in their street.”

“The Big Society is about a huge culture change……where people, in their everyday lives, in their

homes, in their neighbourhoods, in their workplace……don’t always turn to officials, local authorities or central government for answers to the problems

they face ……but instead feel both free and powerful enough to help themselves and their own communities.

It’s about people setting up great new schools. Businesses helping people getting trained for work. Charities working to rehabilitate offenders.It’s about liberation –the biggest, most dramatic redistribution of power from elites in Whitehall to the man and woman on the street”.

Prime Minister David Cameron MP, 19 July 2010

11: “it is a fig-leaf for cuts’ (Caroline Flint MP – Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local

Government)2: it is a cynical attempt to move into a traditional areas

of Labour politics as part of attempts to hold the political centre ground and gain/retain the support of swing voters

33: the Government’s enthusiasm is a rational and welcome step on the road to the further full privatisation

of public services (Financial Times editorial, 16 February 2010)

44: it is a genuine interest in the social and economic potential of co-operatives and civil society

organisations

Social and mutual enterprise sector

Public SectorRegulated PrivateSector

21

28 weavers in Rochdale, Lancashire, opened their first co-

operative store on 21 December 1844 this was the birth-date of the international co-operative

movement

Toad Lane, England

Rochdale Pioneers

1. Voluntary and Open membership2. Democratic Member Control3. Member Economic Participation4. Autonomy and Independence5. Education, Training and Information6. Co-operation among Co-operatives7. Concern for Community

Theme for 2010: "Co-operative Enterprise Empowers Women "

3 July 2010

“Co-operatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, co-operative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others”

Is it:• 10 million?• 20 million?• 50 million?• 100 million?• 250 million?• 500 million?• Over 800 million?

A Co-operative is:

“An autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise”.

Source: International Co-operative Alliance statement of Co-operative Identity

“Co-operatives contribute directly to improve the standards of living of half the World’s population”.(Background paper for United Nations World Summit on Social Development, Copenhagen 1995)

Co-operatives employ over 120 million people 20% more than multi-national corporations

International Co-operative Alliance

The ILO was created in 1919, as part of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I, to reflect the belief that universal and lasting peace can be accomplished only if it is based on social justice

Recognised as a consultative body:

The United Nations has declared 2012 to be the United Nations International Year

of Co-operatives

Representing a force for economic and social change:160,000 co-operative enterprises123 million members5.4 million Jobs€ 300 billion turnover

Co-operative Review 2010

4,992 jointly owned, democratically controlled businesses, owned by more

than 12.9 million people =

1 in 5 of the British population

creating and sustaining more than 237,000 jobs contributing to £34 billion in turnover to the UK economy, building, wealth for the many and not the few....

greener telecomsWe are committed to minimising our environmental impact and encourage staff to consider this is all aspects of our work.

Renewable EnergyWe purchase our electricity from green suppliers, who source their electricity from renewable generators.

We have also invested £20,000 in the Westmill Wind Farm Cooperative, which has built a wind farm near South Oxfordshire and £5,000 in Torrs Hydro New Mills Limited, which has installed a small hydro-electric project in the High Peak of Derbyshire.

provide musical instrument tuition to children in schools around the Tyne and

Wear region

Trust schools The Co-operative College working

with the Co-operative Group and schools to develop a distinct co-operative trust model that enables schools to embed co-operative values into the long term ethos of the school.

Reddish Vale Technology College in Stockport became the first school in the UK to adopt the new Co-operative Trust model enabling parents, staff and learners to become members in the multi-stakeholder co-operative.

Now supporting the development of Co-operative Trusts throughout England and working with the Co-operative Group to develop a strong national network.

Campsmount Technology College and Community Partnership Trust, Doncaster

A critique of ‘Big Society’ A critique of ‘Big Society’ rhetoric and realityrhetoric and reality

1 They are not the ‘magic bullet’ answer to maintaining public services at a time of global fiscal constraint, caused by the global financial crisis caused by the failure to adequately regulate the banks.

2 They cannot be providers of services that the Government or local authorities no longer considers affordable – if the money isn’t there, it simply isn’t there.

3 They cannot be established without support services to help employees and communities to develop them – capacity issue

4 The cannot be handed public sector services contracts in breach of European Union procurement rules

5 Like any business - Co-operative/charity/voluntary organisation, they cannot operate without a viable business plan

1. They may offer a way, through engaging users and providers of services, of providing services at lower cost or – more likely – better services at the same cost.

2. They may help in improving the quality of services provided through provider/consumer engagement (i.e. Co-operative Trust schools)

3. They may help people who are denied public services – and can afford to fund them themselves – replace universal service provision with mutual service provision (e.g. Mutual Retirement Housing) – but that may be to the exclusion of poorer people who need similar services

4. In the face of extreme need – charitable philanthropic services may emerge to offset the most extreme effects of public service cuts

5. Communities may come together to demand new ways of meeting needs that do not require direct public expenditure – i.e. the provision of Co-operative housing on land owned by a Community Land Trust

In the future “success is only likely to come to those who are willing to innovate with new models for funding, land development and tenure”.

Sir Bob Kerslake