The focal point of this conference is the cooperative idea as a design principle and the ways in which it is implemented in practice. The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives highlighting the positive responses of cooperatives to global challenges, with emphasis on sustainable development, eradication of poverty, and the stabilization of livelihoods in various economic sectors in urban and rural areas.
This conference brings together leading academics, practitioners, advisors, and political decision-makers. Our aim is to critically discuss, collect the evidence and demonstrate the capabilities of cooperatives to respond to global challenges. The event is meant to provide an interdisciplinary platform for setting the research agenda in the field of cooperative studies beyond the year 2012. Conference themes tackle the most commonly discussed types of global challenges and related areas of research.
The program comprises two high-ranking keynote addresses followed by a sequence of plenum and parallel sessions, complemented by two podium discussions, a poster session and a best practice exhibition. Results will be summarized in a session at the end of the event. Selected paper contributions will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. Participants intending to contribute a paper are requested to submit an abstract of maximum 2 pages (about 500 words) in English by September 23, 2011, using the management tool (conftool) of our homepage.
The organizers invite an interdisciplinary audience from the fields of
• Cooperatives and Non Profit Organizations
• Economics and Finance
• Political Sciences
• Governance and Institutions
• Cooperative Studies
• Public Policy
• Sociology
• Agricultural Economics
• Rural Development
• Gender Studies
• Geography
• other related disciplines
The conference is part of the International Year of Cooperatives 2012
For further information, regarding the preliminary session themes, registration, accommodation, organization and the submission of abstracts and papers please visit our homepage:
www.coopsyear.hu-berlin.de
