Setting an Educational Agenda for Cooperatives

8/8/2019 Setting an Educational Agenda for Cooperatives

1/17

Futures North Conference, 7th Sept.

Setting an EducationalAgenda for Cooperatives

Dr Rory Ridley-Duff ([email protected]) is course leader for theCooperative and Social Enterprise Summer Schoolat Sheffield Business School(SBS). He worked in a London-based worker cooperative for 12 years, and wasa founding subscriber of Social Enterprise London in 1998. His PhD was basedon a study of a Sheffield-based firm converting to employee ownership.

Rory is now course leader for SBS's first postgraduate programme aimed atmembers of cooperatives and employee-owned businesses (MSc SocialEnterprise and Business Democracy). The programme is supported by thepublication of his new textbook Understanding Social Enterprise(co-authoredwith Mike Bull, at Manchester Metropolitan University).
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


2/17

Key Questions

How can cooperatives and employee-owned businessesachieve recognition in management and businesseducation?

What principles should underpin curriculum choices?

To what extent should employee-owned and cooperativeenterprises be a part of a social enterprise curriculum?


3/17

Finding a place for cooperatives...

In 2007, a plenary speaker (the CEO of a Scottish CDA) at theInternational Small Business and Entrepreneurship Researchconference claimed that cooperatives were private sectorbusinesses.

In 2008, the Office of the Third Sector defined cooperatives as partof the third sector.

In 2010, the Big Society agenda wants cooperatives to take over (or

become part of) public sector delivery.

Educational problem or opportunity?


4/17

Exercise

On your own, think of threegroundbreaking organisations(from each sector) :

First System (Private Sector)

Second System (Public Sector)

Third System (Social Sector)

See Chapter 2 in: Pearce J. (2003), Social Enterprise in Anytown, London: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.


5/17

Exercise

If an organisation

- competes successfully in the "first system" (private)

- is more democratic accountability than the "second system" (public)

- and operates with the ethical values of the "third system" (social)

then what is it?


6/17

Creating opportunities for debate...

The word private is used in two senses: (1) private in the sense of being

non-governmental, and (2) private in the sense of being based on privateproperty. Let us drop the first meaning and retain the second. Similarly public

is used in two senses: (1) public in the sense of being governmental, and (2)

public in the sense of being based on personal rights. Let us use the second

meaning and take it as the definition of social (instead of public). Thus wehave the suggested redefinitions:

Social institution = based on personal rights.Private organization = based on property rights.

By these redefinitions, a democratic firm is a social institution (while still beingprivate in the other sense of being not of the government), while a capitalist

corporation is a private firm (not because it is also non-governmental butbecause it is based on property rights).

Ellerman, D. (1997) The Democratic Corporation, Beijing: Xinhua Publishing House. p. 38


7/17

Creating opportunities for debate...Memorandum of Association Social Enterprise London 26th January 1998.

C. Objects

(1) The objects of the company are:(i) To promote the principles and values of the social enterprise economy in

Greater London and its environs.(ii) To promote co-operative solutions for economic and community

development.(iii) To promote social enterprises, in particular co-operatives and common

ownerships, social firms, and other organisations and businesses which putinto practice the principles of participatory democracy, equal opportunitiesand social justice.

(iv) To promote, develop and support local and regional economic resources andopportunities.

(v) To address social exclusion through economic regeneration.(vi) To create a regional framework to support and resource development of the

social enterprise sector.Source: Companies House


8/17

The Social Economy

Bottom up, democratically controlled, trading?

[comprised of]private, formally organized enterprises, with autonomy of

decision and freedom of membership, created to meet their members needs

through the market by producing goods and services, insurance and finance,where decision-making and any distribution of profits or surpluses among the

members are not directly linked to the capital or fees contributed by eachmember, each of whom has one vote. The Social Economy also includesprivate, formally organized organisations with autonomy of decision-making andfreedom of membership that produce non-market services for households andwhose surplus, if any, cannot be appropriated by the economic agents thatcreate, control or finance them.

Monzon, J. L. and Chaves, R. (2008) The European Social Economy: Concept and Dimensions of the Third

Sector, Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 79(3/4), p. 557.

More than a 'sector' filled with a particular type of organisation? Built on a different philosophy of organisation and economics?


9/17

Strategies at Sheffield Business School

1 - identify opportunities to introduce new lecturesand teaching materials.

2 - start to identify new modules that can be

introduced into existing programmes.

3 - identify opportunities to develop / promote newpostgraduate courses

4 - identify opportunities to develop / promoteundergraduate and open access courses.


10/17

Ideas for diversifying curricula

Using case studies of cooperatives to illustrate "radical" perspectives inemployee relations (i.e. that worker controlled enterprises do not 'fit'neatly into existing debates about employers and employees).

Using case studies of football supporter trusts and mutuals to provokediscussion about the best relationship between owners, managers and

customers.

Using definitional debates about private and social (cooperative)enterprise to illustrate the power of 'discourses', 'paradigms' and'paradigm shifts' to blind us to alternative ways of thinking.

Using seminar exercises that ask students to resolve specificorganisational problems, but framing the problem in differentorganisational settings (a private, cooperative and charitable company).

Compare the way they make their decisions.

Explore how cooperative working alters 'interests'.


11/17

Building an open access short course

Cooperative and Social Enterprise Summer School

Day 1

Third sector, civil society and the social economy.

Developing a contemporary critique of private corporations.

Understanding battle lines in the definition of social enterprise.

Day 2

Challenges in social enterprise governance (making explicit howdemocracy can be enacted in management practice).

Model rules for cooperative social enterprises (and selecting legal

forms to support cooperation).

Day 3 (2011 onwards)

Open Space 'research day' to promote conversations betweenpractitioners and researchers.


12/17

Building an M-Level course

MSc Social Enterprise and Business Democracy(Sheffield Business School)

In which programme? In which faculty?

Postgraduate Certificate (60 credits)

Developing strategies for change

Coaching, mentoring and leadership

The context for social enterprise development

Democratic management, ownership and governance


13/17

Building an M-Level course

Postgraduate Diploma (60 credits)

Third sector / social economy human resource management

Consultancy theory and process

Research methodology

Charity trading and social enterprise

Masters Award (60 credits) Dissertation: examine any aspect of the relationship between

social enterprise and business democracy.


14/17

Supporting study with a new book

Understanding Social Enterprise: Theory andPractice (Sage Publications)

Part 1: Theory1. Third Sector and the Social Economy

2. New Public Management and the Private Sector

3. Defining Social Enterprise

4. Social and Ethical Capital

5. Globalisation and International Perspectives

Aimed at inter-disciplinary audience in multiple subjects.


15/17

Supporting study with a new book

Part 2: Practice6. Management Debates

7. Identities and Legalities

8. Strategic Managementand Planning

9. Governance, HRMand Employee Relations

10. Leadership andSocial Entrepreneurship

11. Income Streamsand Social Investment

12. Measuring Social Outcomesand Impacts

Designed for business, management and enterprise degreeprogrammes.

Identifying thepurpose(s) of

management activity(Chapter 6)

Establishing anidentity and legal

form for operations(Chapter 7)

Deciding how todevelop and

operationalisepractice

(Chapter 8)

Selecting, inductingand managing

members / employees(Chapter 9)Formalising and

informalising leadershipand entrepreneurial

processes(Chapter 10)

Expanding theorganisation through

investment andcontracting activities

(Chapter 11)

Assessing andmanaging outcomesand impacts(Chapter 12)


16/17

Key Arguments

There are creative ways to integrate cooperative thought /debates into FE/HE curricula.

Revisiting the theoretical foundations of a 'social

institution' helps to ground curriculum choices.

The rise of social enterprise as a topic provides newopportunities to develop courses that include cooperativestudies.

Creating course / book content that compares the impactof decision-making in different forms of enterprise is agood way to highlight their characteristics and impact.


17/17

Workshop Questions (for starters..)

Where are the best opportunities to embed lectures,modules and courses on cooperatives, employee-ownedbusinesses and other social enterprises?

Is there anyone here interested in developing the case forA-Level cooperative and social enterprise studies?

Documents

Setting an Educational Agenda for Cooperatives