Stream 8
Ethics and cooperatives
Stream leads: Gabriel Monette (HEC Montréal), Camille Ternier (École Normale Supérieure), Thierry Pauchant (HEC Montréal)
Description:
The ethics of cooperatives are often described by a set of principles and values codified, for example, by the International co-operative Alliance. The historical emergence of cooperatives is also advanced for explaining these principles and values, such as the rise of worker movements, political parties, unionized organizations, the development of solidarity firms or the influence of utopias.
Yet, authors in moral philosophy suggest that the focus on principles and values is emphasized by specific schools of ethics, for example the deontological school and the utilitarian one, with the danger of leaving out many other alternatives.
At a time when the United Nations affirm that the social and solidarity sector is the one which best exemplify the pursuit of sustainable development goals, themselves derived from a reintroduction of ethics in economics, it sems urgent to better define the ethical foundations of cooperatives. This is the goal of this research stream. Suggested topics include:
The strength and weakness to use principles and values to define the ethics of cooperatives
The UN sustainable development goals and the ethics of cooperatives
The potential to use different moral philosophies for grounding ethics in cooperatives
The comparison of cooperatives’ ethics with common business ethics (For example CSR, Circular economy, impact finance, inclusive capitalism, etc.)
The use of alternative ethical models in cooperatives (Amartya Sen, Elinor Ostrom, Etc.)
The risk of degeneration and bureaucratization of values in cooperatives
The ethics of governance in cooperatives
The power dynamics within cooperatives and their influence in ethics
The political influences and their effects on cooperative ethics
Strategies for safeguarding cooperative ethics in the face of external pressures
We welcome submissions from diverse fields, offering unique perspectives on how cooperatives can develop their ethical foundations and practices, thus adapting to the current contemporary challenges.