Asia Pacific Co-operative Research Partnership Building Co-operatives Across the Asia Pacific Region
Research Proposal October 2014
Introduction The International Year of Co-operatives (IYC), 2012, demonstrated the worldwide significance, importance and potential of the co-operative movement to contribute to a sustainable, democratic and just society. It helped raise global consciousness of the policy implications of liberal economics and rising inequality in a world where stability is increasingly threatened. The launch of the Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade in 2013 goes further in that it focuses on how the problems of global inequality and environmental degradation can be addressed through co-operation. Importantly in an era of rising inequality co-operatives have demonstrated the potential to remove impediments to integral human development through the creation of member-based organizations which are a loci of distribution rather than of accumulation by a minority as witnessed by the investor firm. More importantly, the IYC has provided an impetus to gain a greater understanding of how co-operatives emerge, succeed, evolve and sometimes fail so the movement can continue to build on its competitive advantages demonstrated during the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and post GFC and make a significant contribution to solve the important issue of world poverty (Bajoc and Roelants, 2014). This proposal for a five year comparative research project involving sixteen countries across the Asia Pacific Region will demonstrate how the ICA objectives can be achieved by advancing the co-operative as the model preferred by people so as it will become the fastest growing form of enterprise in the region. This proposal meets the needs for research into co-operatives in the Asia Pacific as outlined by Mr. Akira Kurimoto in his address at the 8th ICA AP Research Conference held in November 2013 in Mysore, India. Executive Summary The research project has the following key objectives:
Research Vision Professor Dongre of Mysore University stated at the 9th ICA (international Co-operative Alliance) Research Conference in Bali in September 2014: “The ICA Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade provides critical insights and a new agenda for researchers by addressing key issues which brings research to focus on participation, sustainability and identity. This provides for the interlinking and connectivity of the research as these features can be framed as a set of guidelines to strengthen business within a business strategy of co-operative growth with the co-operative emerging as the fastest growing form of enterprise preferred by the people. So for each country and cooperative sector it is important to identify what is the “gap” that needs to be addressed to ensure this happens and how co-operatives can become more competitive without loosing their identity. Therefore the co-operative needs to be a constructive competitor as well as an efficient competitor. For researchers there are new horizons and a new research agenda and new perspectives to be gained in areas such as capital and its sources and the balance between investor and member financial participation. Within the Asian context it is critical that the legal framework facilitates participation and sustainability and areas of decline are addressed and replaced with vertical and horizontal participation”. Overview The underlying ethos of the research is to contribute to the ICA Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade but also most importantly to highlight how Asia can provide lessons in integral human development through co-operation to other regions of the world and in so doing contribute to the advance of the global community. This will be done by profiling the Asian model and provide lessons to other regions on how a sustainable way of life can be achieved rather than one based on consumption financed by debt; how the step to an acceptable standard of living based on greater equality does not necessitate turning the worker into a consumer. The research will also endorse the vision of the United Nations, which seeks to make sustainability a key component of all business activities. In this regard the research will highlight the sustainability of co-operatives:
The research will also focus on how co-operatives can assist the ASEAN Economic Community implement successfully its blueprint for an integrated society. The research will demonstrate how co-operatives can play a key role in assisting ASEAN transform itself into a single market and production base, a highly competitive economic region, a region of equitable economic development, and a region fully integrated into the global economy. It will do this by demonstrating how co-operatives deliver greater equality through networks whereby the gains from more equal societies flow through the whole of society. In so doing it will challenge the ‘trickle down’ liberal economic model of development. The key objective of the research is to build the research capacity of each country through the work of each participating institution by identifying “best practice” in three co-operative sectors and developing a methodology by sustainable economic development. The researchers are cognizant however of the difficulty the world wide community has of replicating “best practice” models and therefore respects the need to assist in developing “best fit” models for each country arising out of their own historical, social, economic and cultural experience. Research Mission The research project has a three-part mission, which relates to (a) practical outcomes; (b) philosophical reflection and interrogation; and (c) theoretical development. These are coordinated to move the co-operative sector in the Asia Pacific forward through a combination of praxis and research. The three mission statements are:
The ICA has defined five areas for the development of co-operatives and these are integral to this research proposal. The research will be able to gain an in-depth through case studies of the co-operative business model based on collective entrepreneurship and network governance, which are associated with high innovation, productivity and job satisfaction. Promote a New Co-operative Business Model
Overcome Barriers to Co-operative formation
This research will then add support to the 2020 Vision of the ICA for the co-operative form of business by 2020 to become:
This will be achieved by providing rigorous research on which sound policy and capacity can be built by contributing to the development of the tools to facilitate this objective. Research Context The area the research covers is a very large percentage of the world’s population: ASEAN – 600 million; India 1.2 billion; and China 1.3 billion. This area also contains fifty three percent of the world’s co-operatives. Co-operatives are a mutual self-help organisation combining in one business model the duality of individual self-help and innovation with mutuality and solidarity and the obligation to assist others. In this context we see co- operatives as a particular reaction to the failure of the market and the state in the inability of government to ensure minimum standards of food, housing, services, education and standard of living. Co-operatives are therefore a reaction to the form of capitalism in which they operate and a way of meeting these needs and addressing poverty. An important theoretical issue for this research is to extend our understanding of the ‘varieties of capitalism” literature as it explains the impact of enabling and limiting factors in co-operative formation and decline. This will extend our understanding of Anglo Saxon Liberal Market Capitalism, Rhineland Capitalism, and Mediterranean Capitalism (Hall and Soskice, 2001) to include Asian Capitalism. In Asia Bafoil’s (2014) “Emerging Capitalism in Central Europe and Southeast Asia - A comparison of political economies” sets out the context of our research. Palgrave Macmillan introduce the book: Here we have the emergence of states that are characterized by a strong urge toward feelings of national sovereignty due to their experiences with colonialism and imperialism. But, due to the regional economic pressures and the globalization dynamic, these states cannot articulate protectionist policies. They are forced to open their economies in order to attract Foreign Direct Investments. This results in less regulated and more political forms of capitalism than in some more developed capitalist countries. This book analyzes forms of capitalism as the arising from a combination of three conditions: the legacy of the foreign occupations, the national construction process of the sovereign state, and lastly, the dynamics of regional integration. Palgrave Macmillan In this respect it is important to have Australia in the comparative analysis as it chose not to follow the co-operative path and institutionalize a minimum basic wage for it's citizens. This is highlighted in the soon to be published research comparing the Italian and Australian co-operative sectors (Jensen, Patmore and Tortia, 2014). Partners and Sectors Comparative national studies of cooperative movements grounded in cultural, political, economic and historical analysis enable the transfer of intellectual capital, experience and understanding across cultures while providing concrete case studies and tools for capacity building. Here, capacity building is perceived as policy-making, examination, and communication and analyzing economic benefits. Accepting that co-operative movements are the product of the capitalist state it then becomes possible to model co-operative emergence and behavior in the very rich contexts of the nature of the state and institutions such as the market and the labor movement and the capacity of co-operatives to mediate capitalism. (i) Partners This research project initially proposes a comparative analysis across sixteen Asian countries and Australia, which are in various stages of co-operative development and in very different relationships with the state in terms of the variety of capitalism literature. The partners include the ten ASEAN countries Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos plus India, China, Japan, South Korea, Iran and Australia. (ii) Sectors Three co-operative sectors are chosen, as drivers of growth to address poverty, and these will emphasize the inclusiveness of the co-operative model. The potential of these sectors will also be viewed through the lens of the ICA Five Pillars: Firstly building on the Co-operative model for sustained competitive advantage using the three unique features of participation, sustainability and identity. Secondly by addressing how the barriers of legal structures and capital access to co-operative formation and thriving have been overcome. The three key co-operative sectors the research will concentrate on are:
In addition the key role of the credit union will be explored as a catalyst for agricultural co-operatives and worker co-operatives as pioneered by Kubu Gunung in Bali, Indonesia. The key objective of the research is to accelerate the process of poverty reduction and sustainable development by selecting a number of advanced co-operatives for study and replication. For example:
(iii) Policy Development The key objective is to develop policy on how to replicate these success stories and to accelerate their adoption so as to enhance our capacity to assist nations address the problems of poverty and development. The research will demonstrate the complementarity of a mixed economy based on the investor model and the co-operative model thereby enhancing the capacity of co-operatives to resist any negative policy initiatives towards co-operatives. The project will also assist politicians such as President Joko of Indonesia to introduce reforms and develop policy pertaining to new form of civil society.
Methodology Sixteen Asia-Pacific countries are potentially involved at this stage, including Australia. A partnering university/institution will be selected from each country and invited to participate in the transdiciplinary comparative research project. Selection criteria will include firstly the existing presence of researchers in co-operatives and commitment to the mission and goals of the research project in developing an alternative model of civil society. Secondly partners are sought who are willing to assist with developing the structure of the research project, promoting its benefits, developing the scholarship of the research and identifying research funds. The project will be based around action research in policy development and reporting procedures. The project will extend over five years and will commence with a three-day symposium at a venue to be chosen. In each year a symposium will be held in one of the other countries selected on the basis of where it would have the most impact. The final symposium probably will be held at the University of Asia Pacific. It is envisioned that each country will also hold a seminar to support the project and disseminate results relevant to its country. The research project will balance both quantitative and qualitative methodology. (i) Mapping Asia Pacific Co-operative Sector: Quantitative secondary data on co-operative demography and density will be available in a number of the countries. Where not available discussion will be held on how this data can be collected as part of the project. This will provide data for quantitative analysis across a range of metrics. In addition, a number of specific areas would be the focus of research. These include co-operative legislation and legal models, co-operative associations, institutional and government support. Academics experienced in this area will be sought.
(ii) Case Studies: The aim is to demonstrate how co-operatives have overcome the barriers to start up, how they have thrived and how they have overcome the forces of decline. It will also highlight where barriers to co-operative formation and thriving exist. Foundation theoretical papers for the research are listed in the bibliography. The research will be grounded in the history of the co-operative movement in each country (Villamin, 2009) and will track the historical evolution of individual co-operatives and draw on theoretical models demonstrating the superiority of the co-operative model. Collection of qualitative data will be achieved through the case study methodology. It is envisioned that from 2 -10 case studies are conducted in each country with two cases from each of the main cooperative sectors: worker, consumer and agricultural. If resources permit this would be increased. In addition case studies would involve the public utilities of electricity and water co-operatives. The research will methodology will consist of financial analysis, semi structured interviews and structured questionnaires. Pilot research has commenced during the visit of Dr. A. Jensen at the 2nd Social Entrepreneurship Conference organized by the University of Asia and the Pacific on October 17 and 18, 2013. This has produced a focus group discussion for case study research to test out the methodology. Main Outcome The research, analysis, case studies and policy proposals will be produced in a two-volume book, which will demonstrate how a sustainable society based on co-operation will address the problems of capitalism in Asia Pacific Region in the 21st Century. This will be launched by the ICA and delivered to governments across the region. Additional Outcomes (i) Education A key objective and outcome of the Project will be developing the capacity of teaching on co-operatives across the Asia Pacific Region. The objective will be to ensure that all the universities involved in the project develop basic undergraduate courses in cooperative education. Resources will be shared to achieve this. In addition there will be exchange programs across the region beginning where a lecturer/research academic will spend some months in each country. A key objective will be the launch of a Co-operative Summer School in Manila possibly in 2015 piloted by UAP. Further areas for consideration are (a) credited course and (b) developing a module for teaching participation in ownership and governance. Where appropriate online learning will be encouraged. (ii) Theoretical Development The research project will also add to the theoretical understanding of a number of key areas related to varieties of capitalism, co-operative theory and the labour movement (Jensen, 2012). This will assist in answering the question as to whether a new form of capitalism is emerging in Asia or a new form of civil society. In so doing it will challenge the theoretical tools of economic liberalism which fail to explain the success of the co-operative model (Altman, 2014). (iii) Publications and Tools A number of publications are expected out of this research. There will be interim policy reports on each country offering a comparative analysis across Asia. Articles will be published in important and relevant journals. A book summarizing the research project and its findings will be published. Videos and communication material will be produced as well as manuals on cooperative development. Press releases and articles will be used to disseminate the results of the research.
Management of the Research Project (i) Partners It is proposed that there will be sixteen countries and institutions who will be partners co-operating in the scoping and conducting of the research. (ii) Secretariat The University of Asia Pacific’s Centre for Research and Communication will provide the secretariat under the umbrella of the Chair of Social Entrepreneurship. (iii) Managing Partners The overall management of the project will be conducted by:
(iv) Academic Advisers A panel of academics will be convened to advise on the project.
Timeline The Asia Pacific Research Co-operative Partnership is conceived as a five-year project to enable the ambitious goals of the ICA to be achieved. The benchmarks for the five years are as follows: Year 1 – First meeting – January 2015. Setting up the project and data gathering. Literature review. Methodology and instruments for case studies developed. Report and press release. Year 2 - Field research begins on case studies. Initial descriptive material collected. Year 3 – Research continues. Some initial findings produced. Policy proposals developed. Year 4 – Completion of case studies. Year 5 – Completion of report and communication. Book published. Dissemination process across Asia and beyond. Timing Following the launch of the research project in Bali at the ICA Conference in September 2014 the research proposal is now finalized. Partners are currently being invited to join the project. The first meeting of the project will occur in January 2015. Funding This is a major research and capacity building project, which will also advance theoretical understanding of cooperatives. Funding requirement is sought across five years to achieve all the objectives. Costing the project is in progress as is the identifying of potential funders in collaboration with partners. Exploration of funding will begin in late 2014 and fund raising will continue in 2015. Conclusion
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