Review of International Co-Operation Volume 105/2019
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Review of International Co-operation Volume 105/2019 CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE: Xavier Bartoll Carlos Enrique González Blanco Mohit Dave Fiona Duguid Sara Elder Isobel M. Findlay JoAnn Jaffe Lou Hammond Ketilson Judith Harris Virginia Hunter Jeffrey Moxom Johnny Mugisha Diana Namwanje Mercy Nimusiima Bernard B. Obaa Erick Obongo Laia Ollé-Espluga Gerrie Prymak Arielle Romenteau Ezechiel Sentama Priscilla Settee Shannon Sutton M. Derya Tarhan A publication of Review of International Co-operation Volume 105/2019 This special issue of the Review includes seven peer-reviewed, original research papers and a co-editor introduction addressing the theme, Co-operative Strength in Diversity: Voices, Governance, and Engagement. Papers reflect on the complex intersections among diversity, voice, governance, and engagement that challenge and invigorate co-operatives in Canada and internationally. They document co-operative strengths as well as ongoing challenges in achieving reconciliation and justice for all. Editors of this special issue Sara Elder, Isobel M. Findlay, Judith Harris, Fiona Duguid, and M. Derya Tarhan Journal Editorial Board Sonja Novkovic Series Editor, Canada Morris Altman Australia Christina Clamp USA Esther Gicheru Kenya Cynthia Giagnocavo Spain Lou Hammond-Ketilson Canada Costas Iliopoulos Greece Akira Kurimoto Japan Davi Moura Costa Brazil T. Paranjothi India Paola Raffaelli Denmark Claudia Sanchez Bajo Argentina Roger Spear UK Address International Cooperative Alliance Avenue Milcamps 105 1030 Brussels, Belgium Graphic design Andrea Vizcaya Russo - Señales Ltda. Online ISBN 978-92-9054-152-3 Print ISBN 978-92-9054-153-0 © International Cooperative Alliance Review of International Co-operation 1 Co-operative Strength in Diversity: Voices, Governance, and Engagement Table of Contents Preface Sonja Novkovic 2 Introduction Judith Harris, Isobel M. 3 Findlay, Sara Elder, Fiona Duguid, and M. Derya Tarhan Indigenous Knowledge, Human Rights, and the Priscilla Settee 7 Principles and Values of Co-operation Reclaiming Community: Active Citizenship Judith Harris, Gerrie Prymak, 24 through an Inner City Village Co-operative and Virginia Hunter Co-operatives and Reconciliation after Violent Ezechiel Sentama 46 Conflicts: Lessons from Post-Genocide Rwanda Female Participation and Voice at Tanzanian Fair Shannon Sutton 63 Trade Co-operatives Health Status and Job Satisfaction of Worker Laia Ollé-Espluga and 83 Co-operative Members in the Basque Country in Xavier Bartoll a Time of Economic Uncertainty Co-operatives, Agricultural Livelihoods, Gender, JoAnn Jaffe, Lou Hammond 102 and Differentiation in Rural Uganda Co- Ketilson, Johnny Mugisha, operatives and the Sustainable Bernard B. Obaa, Diana Namwanje, and Mercy Nimusiima Development Goals: The Role of Co-operative Jeffrey Moxom and 126 Organisations in Facilitating SDG Implementation Arielle Romenteau, with at Global, National, and Local Levels contributions from Erick Obongo, Mohit Dave, and Carlos Enrique González 2 Review of International Co-operation Preface Special issue edited by the Canadian Association for the Studies in Co-operation Sonja Novkovic This 105th issue of the Review represents a collection of diverse experiences and uses of the cooperative model. The common factor to all essays is humanity that cuts through the poverty, marginalization, conflict, and the injustices of colonization. Cooperative contributions to sustainable development and sustainable communities in different corners of the globe are represented in this volume, illustrating once again the power of cooperation. Sonja Novkovic Chair, Committee on Co-operative Research Review of International Co-operation 3 Introduction to Special Issue of the Review of International Co-operation Judith Harris, Isobel M. Findlay, Sara Elder, Fiona Duguid, and M. Derya Tarhan Co-operative enterprises involve diverse groups of individuals gathering and working toward a common goal. Research has shown that this diversity of voices, backgrounds, and perspectives comes with challenges but can also be a significant strength for co-operatives. This co-operative advantage can be maximized in cases where governance structures enable inclusive meaningful engagement from members. In this Special Issue of the Review of International Co-operation, focused on “Co-operative Strength in Diversity: Voices, Governance, and Engagement,” we reflect upon the interplay of diversity, inclusion, and social justice with co-operative enterprises in Canada and beyond. Critical global and local challenges that call on us to work together towards peace and sustainability require relationship building and partnering at all levels of organization across the differences that may separate us. This collection of papers demonstrates the potential of enterprise founded on co-operative values and principles to promote inclusion, decent work, positive work-place relationships, co-op to co-op alliances and concern for the wider community to bridge difference and address super-ordinate goals. The authors draw on historical and current examples to illustrate both the opportunities and the continuing barriers that face co- operatives given the cultural, gender, geographic, and livelihood divides that confront, engage, and energize the movement. The first essay by Priscilla Settee on “Indigenous Knowledge, Human Rights, and the Principles and Values of Co-operation” importantly adds to the academic literature on co-operative and Indigenous thinking in the context of ongoing human rights struggles within neoliberal globalization. Its unique contribution to this special issue lies in its sharing of lessons learned in personal and professional, academic and activist, formal and informal engagement with the impacts of colonial and neo-colonial monocultures that have been so damaging to communities, but especially Indigenous communities still fighting for basic human rights, including safe housing and clean water. Her writing brings home the need for Indigenous and co-operative values and principles to work together to bridge different communities, to remember shared histories of struggle, to “stand up to the bullies of profit” that have put nature in crisis, and to humanize 4 Review of International Co-operation discourses and practices. Practitioners, co-operative development as an effective policy makers, and academics can all tool for “relationship transformation”. “Co- benefit from lessons learned about the operatives and Reconciliation after Violent importance of different worldviews and Conflicts: Lessons from post-genocide knowledges in the interests of healthy Rwanda” sheds light on the potential for people and planet. Building on the work co-operatives to facilitate socioeconomic of Odora Hoppers (2012), the essay change within a context of ethnic conflict. makes a strong argument for unlearning Through a qualitative study of the case of old colonial ways and for learning a new post-genocide Rwanda, Sentama provides vocabulary that is as compassionate as it a valuable contribution to the academic is creative in enhancing socio-economic literature on co-operatives as agents and cognitive justice for all. of social development. He convincingly argues that by providing a space for A Canadian case of Indigenous-led positive interaction between conflicting development is presented by Judith Harris parties and guiding values and principles and Gerrie Prymak in their article entitled that bind members, co-operatives can “Reclaiming Community: An inner city contribute to reconciliation without the village co-operative,” an account of the need for a third party. In Rwanda, the establishment of the Village Co-operative co-operatives studied engaged both in Winnipeg’s North End. This co-operative genocide survivors and former genocide initiative was the idea of women, perpetrators, effectively providing a space grandmothers and other caregivers who to connect and re-humanize the other. had for many years been attending the The paper highlights the contribution co- weekly North End Stay and Play (NESP) operatives can make alongside public and program. In the process of attending third party-based mechanisms toward this program, women developed lasting reconciliation in post-conflict societies. friendships and built capacity that led them to pool their resources and establish the This essay is an important addition to Village Co-operative—a nourishing space the literature on the co-operative role for grandmothers, mothers, children, and in promoting positive socio-economic the broader community alike. Harris and change in general and peace in particular. Prymak examine the basic elements of Exploring the case of post-Genocide the community co-operative model (Mori, Rwanda, Sentama builds on literature 2014) and determine how it might fit with on social arenas’ potential to disrupt and provide guidance to this new inner- and displace othering processes that city Village Co-operative. Building on this support social exclusion and violence analysis, they consider the establishment (Hewstone & Hughes, 2015; Kiyala, 2015; of this co-operative as a way of returning Lederach, 1997; and Schulz, 2008) to to the traditional village model and argue for co-operatives as a key social reclaiming community functions for space for positive inter-group interaction, Indigenous community members in the for reconciliation and positive relations North End of Winnipeg. Winnipeg, as the across ethnic and other divides. Adding most Indigenous urban centre in Canada, to literature