Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management 10 (2022) 100161

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Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jcom

Bridging co-operation’s communication gap: The Statement on the

Co-operative Identity, the sociology of co-operative education’s shifting
terrain, and the problem of public opinion
Mitch Diamantopoulos
University of Regina, 105.22 Administration-Humanities Building, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, SK, S4S 0A2, Canada

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This article focuses on co-operatives’ faltering position in 21st century Canadian public opinion. I argue co-
Co-operatives operative education’s introverted bias toward ‘boardrooms and classrooms’ neglects public opinion; and that
Culture shifting international norms and historical conditions have reinforced this retreat from mass media and the
Hegemony
public sphere. A co-operative communication gap of international significance is the result. Cultural hegemony
Popular education
Communication
theory and qualitative methods are used to develop the argument. Historical analysis first demonstrates that
Mass media educational conventionalism dangerously discounts the contemporary cultural environment’s threat to mutu­
Alternative media alism. It is argued that the International Co-operative Alliance’s (ICA) contradictory doctrine has deepened
normative confusion about co-operative education’s scope, further delaying media activism and popular edu­
cation. Textual analysis illustrates this contradiction in key documents. These include the Report of the ICA
Commission on Co-operative Principles (1967), the Statement on the Co-operative Identity (1995), and the Guidance
Notes to the Co-operative Principles (2016). Finally, conjunctural analysis shows that contradictory tendencies
inside and outside international mutualism reshaped an inward-turning pedagogy from 1995 to 2016. Findings
thus extend our understanding of the communication gap by accounting for barriers to popular educational
innovation, both conceptual and strategic.

1. Introduction: Co-operation and its discontents disinterest in mutualism is particularly striking at a moment of wide­
spread anti-capitalist skepticism. For example, 67 % of those surveyed
Co-operation has an image problem. Consider the Canadian case. By disagreed that “when businesses make a lot of money, everyone benefits,
many measures, Canada exemplifies co-operative achievement (Bou­ including the poor”. Conversely, 60 % agreed “the economic system is
chard, 2017; Diamantopoulos, 2020; Duguid, Tarhan, & Vieta, 2015; rigged against people like me” (p. 4). If most Canadians already belong
Fairbairn & Russell, 2014; Lévesque & Ninacs, 2000; MacPherson, 2009, to a co-op, and many more deeply distrust investor-led development,
1979; Quarter, 1992; Quarter et al., 2017). In fact, similar to Ireland, why do so many seem so disinterested in mutualism’s promise? That
Finland, and Sweden, over half Canada’s population were co-op mem­ puzzle is this article’s focus.
bers at the turn of the century (Shaffer, 1999).1 Yet 53 % of Canadians Canadian findings on co-operative education suggest one explana­
polled in 2019 were “unfamiliar” with the model (Coletto, 2020, p. 10).2 tion (Hancock & Brault, 2016). Based on 180 educational initiatives
Only 10 % were “very familiar” with co-operatives. Canadians’ from 55 co-operative organizations, efforts skewed inward and

E-mail address: diaman1d@uregina.ca.

1
These data are now somewhat dated. One reason is the Government of Canada no longer compiles sector membership figures (Statistics Canada, 2021). Similarly,
many countries lack reliable and comparable data. This makes cross-national comparisons difficult. The United Nations (2014) Global Census of Co-operatives thus
built on shaky statistical foundations. It found Canadian co-operative membership was no longer part of the global ‘top ten’ when measured relative to the country’s
total population and GDP. The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Co-operatives (COPAC) have
recently developed new guidelines and a common methodology for national profiles through the International Co-operative Alliance’s four regions.
2
Abacus Data conducted the national online survey of 5,000 Canadian adults for Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada. Respondents aged over 18 were randomly
sampled from October 15 to 21, 2019, with the sample weighted to reflect the age, gender, educational attainment, and regional distribution of the Canadian
population (p.14).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcom.2021.100161
Received 28 May 2021; Received in revised form 2 December 2021; Accepted 6 December 2021
Available online 16 February 2022
2213-297X/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M. Diamantopoulos Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management 10 (2022) 100161

upward—catering to management and the board. The public was second occasional inability or unwillingness of some co-operators to put their
least targeted, trailed only by academics.3 This largely confirms findings principles into practice (e.g. Novkovic, 2004). For example, movement
from an earlier study of 77 co-ops: community education expenditures pathologies such as diluted identity (e.g. Bager, 1994), attenuated social
finished last, after member, director and manager education (Novkovic, ties (e.g. Lamprinakis, 2020) and democratic erosion (Diamantopoulos,
2006). Professional educators’ lessons now mostly address sector in­ 2012a, 2013) may each blur co-operatives’ distinctiveness and discredit
siders, contrasting sharply with earlier periods’ populist agitations such the model. A public that lacks familiarity with co-operatives, distrusts
as the Antigonish movement (Brown, 1973; Diamantopoulos, 2012b, their authenticity and is estranged from movement values may thus have
2015; MacPherson, 2007d, pp. 99–122,137-160; Poulin, 2000; Taylor, good reasons for their disinterest and doubts.
2000; Welton, 2001). This tacit policy of ‘preaching to the choir’ appears However, this paper argues that educational action also matters. In
to yield predictable results: mutualism’s message is largely contained particular, it contends that popular ambivalence toward mutualism
within closed communication channels.4 largely reflects co-operative education’s bias toward ‘boardrooms and
In other words, Canadian co-operative learning is mostly confined to classrooms’. Moreover, it finds this introversion has been reinforced by
an ‘echo chamber’ (Jamieson & Cappella, 2008). In the enclosed con­ recent shifts in international movement norms and historical conditions.
fines of boardrooms and classrooms, internal messages reverberate and This article thus argues against official mutualism’s educational
are insulated against conflicting messages from outside. Positively, this consensus (ICA, 2016) and the related tendencies to both discount ed­
creates space to share co-op knowledge (e.g. Chapman, 2012; Crewe, ucation’s role in co-operation’s fortunes (Shaw, 2011; Vernon, 2016)
1999; Shaw, 2011). Insulation also protects against isomorphic pres­ and narrow its scope to structured learning contexts (Woodin, 2012).
sures, which might otherwise erode co-operative identity (Bager, 1994; Most studies neglect informal learning, instead favouring formal and
Diamantopoulos, 2012a; Hancock & Brault, 2016; Novkovic, 2006). non-formal programs. UNESCO defines formal education as schooling, i.
Negatively, this echo chamber jeopardizes co-operation’s cultural e. “institutionalized, intentional and planned …” (2021a). Graduate
expansion as the public is educationally excluded and under-informed. programs in co-operative studies, including management specializations
Educational insularity instead offers the people a ‘message in a such as the Master of Management in Co-operatives and Credit Unions at
bottle’—a message that’s hard to reach, difficult to decipher, and Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, fit this category. Non-formal learning
addressed to others. With co-operative ideas’ spread largely bottled-up, is “an addition, alternative and/or a complement to formal education”
movement messages’ popular reception may thus be muted, misunder­ (2021b). In-house director training fits this type. Canadian co-ops focus
stood, or simply fail to strike a resonant chord. Between an increasingly on these conventional staples of classroom and boardroom instruction.
expert but exclusive subculture of co-operators, on the one hand, and a By contrast, informal learning includes “less organized and struc­
chronically neglected public, on the other hand, mutualism’s commu­ tured” everyday activities (2021c). Watching the news, web-surfing or
nication gap widens. Withdrawing from public life, ignored by jour­ attending concerts or union meetings are informal learning practices.
nalists and neglected by politicians, co-operatives are therefore less Consider a publication such as Co-op News. By popularizing co-operative
prominent in public debates than they were a century ago (MacPherson, perspectives, it breaks down barriers to involvement and invites dem­
2015). ocratic regeneration (Co-op News, 2021). However, this vast field of
Outside sector board rooms, mutualism thus remains mysterious. For informal learning is marginalized in educational research, where the
example, Canadian consumer preference for co-operative products may more straightforward evaluation of curriculum dominates (Duguid
be superficially rooted in little more than a ‘warm glow’ effect (Altman, et al., 2013). Similarly, while the term ‘education’ denotes all three
2016). Even amongst members, Fairbairn (2006) found few people forms of learning, in professional and popular usage it primarily con­
could put the co-operative difference into words.5 While conventional notes formal and non-formal practices. Certainly, this restricted scope
marketing and public relations promote trade and positive brand image, reflects professional educators’ understandings and institutional work
they evidently fail to cultivate the convictions on which movement settings. The dominant educational discourse thus normalizes their
expansion depend (Webb, 2000). Canadian co-operative leaders’ “most introverted focus on classrooms and boardrooms; by the same token, it
pressing concern”—for three consecutive years—shouldn’t therefore be exceptionalizes the informal, popular learning that has been such an
surprising: “improving awareness about the relevance of the co-op historical font of movement vigor (e.g. MacPherson, 2002; Yeo, 2016).
model” (Yu, 2021, p. 3). Often missing from view are those popular educators, including move­
Moreover, there’s reason to believe the Canadian experience isn’t ment journalists, whose community-centred and movement-based
anomalous; rather, it may reflect mutualism’s wider cultural deprecia­ practices expanded co-operation’s cultural resonance with subaltern
tion. For example, an international survey (IPSOS and Université du publics, thus extending the movement’s reach and scope. Conventional
Québec à Montréal, 2012) found almost a quarter of non-members were understandings thereby reinforce the communication gap between
either ‘unaware’ of co-operatives or ‘unfamiliar’. Worse, another quarter sector insiders and the public.
were ‘sceptics’. They distrusted co-ops to deliver on their values, Yet, media culture’s ubiquity underlines informal learning’s
particularly larger co-ops. Recent findings of Canadians’ disengagement contemporary importance. In fact, the larger culture is now a more
are thus neither new nor isolated; public ignorance, apathy, and cyni­ powerful educational force than schooling in developed societies
cism appear to be enduring, cross-border threats. Indeed, leaders across (Giroux, 2010). Misleading lessons about economic and democratic
the Americas agree lagging public awareness is a major obstacle to possibilities aren’t simply taught in schools; all-pervasive media
co-operation’s progress (Coopérativas de las Americas, 2014). repeatedly reinforce them, around the clock and across the life-span.
Of course, there are many possible reasons for the historic erosion of Co-operatives’ invisibility in economics textbooks (Chamard, 2004;
co-operation’s status as a compelling alternative. These include the Hill, 2000; Kalmi, 2007) thus parallel journalism texts’ ideological as­
sumptions (Brennen, 2000) and co-ops’ daily absence in business news
(ICA, 2016). To ignore or discount media saturation’s vast socializing
3
and educational power is both intellectually and ethically dubious
Other groups included were members, staff and outside entrepreneurs / (Kellner & Share, 2005).
developers (p. 9).
4 Against reducing co-operative education to the ‘formal / non-formal’
Québec represents a distinct co-operative experience (Bouchard, 2017),
binary of classrooms and boardrooms, this study therefore argues
characterized by a considerably more interventionist popular education infra­
structure than the pan-Canadian norm (Diamantopoulos, 2015). informal channels’ neglect erodes public awareness and, hence, move­
5
The International Co-operative Alliance (1995) Statement of Co-operative ment expansion prospects. Moreover, it shows that the International Co-
Identity provides normative guidelines for the movement. Novkovic (2008) operative Alliance’s (ICA) contradictory educational norms confuse and
provides a helpful overview. delay progress in public opinion formation. Finally, it demonstrates that

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M. Diamantopoulos Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management 10 (2022) 100161

these mixed messages reflect deeper discursive shifts across the co- principle are historically and conceptually related. Treated as a genre of
operative field in globalization’s wake. The article is organized as fol­ movement discourse, inter-textual relationships reveal a more adequate
lows. Theory and methods are outlined in section two. Findings from account than isolated textual analysis. For example, emergent or
hegemony analysis of the media’s evolving historical importance to incongruent themes over time surface how successive leadership gen­
movement learning are described in section three. Findings from genre erations understood popular education’s role. Finally, conjunctural
and textual analysis of key ICA documents are presented in section four. analysis situates those texts within the wider, formative contexts that
Findings from conjunctural analysis illustrate how contradictory social “organize human masses, and create the terrain on which men (sic)
forces shaped those texts in section five. Finally, the conclusion ties move, acquire consciousness of their position, struggle, etc.” (Gramsci,
these threads together to consider contemporary implications. 1959, p. 377). From a Gramscian standpoint, the ICA documents don’t
stand alone; they reflect discursive struggles over education’s evolving
2. Cultural hegemony theory and qualitative methods practice by disparate fragments of a movement in transition; the ideas
that dominate are snapshots of that ‘moving equilibrium’. Texts’ content
This inquiry’s foundational assumption is that adult education is the therefore reflect more than an ‘inner logic;’ they also reflect shifting
bedrock of co-operation’s democratic, cultural, and therefore economic economic, political, and cultural realities and ‘relations of force,’
viability (e.g. Chapman, 2012; Crewe, 1999; Diamantopoulos, 2015; destabilizing what is necessarily a mobile and fragile consensus. Con­
Welton, 2001). Education animates and gives substantive effect to the junctural analysis thus clarifies historically specific openings and ob­
Co-operative Identity’s formal propositions, breathing life into mutu­ stacles to popularizing co-operation, including clashing forces for
alism as an idée force. Co-operative pedagogy thus stands at a crucial educational reform and retrenchment.
nexus in converting mutualism’s vast development potential into
real-world, well-informed, and inclusive popular mobilizations. From 3. Historical analysis: Neo-liberal globalization, media-culture
new start-ups and member recruitment to regenerating the movement and the changing context for co-operative education
and realizing transformative projects such as the Blueprint for a
co-operative decade (Mills & Davies, 2013) or the Sustainable Develop­ One price paid for reducing co-operative education to formal and
ment Goals (Wanyama, 2016), co-operative advance hinges on educa­ non-formal curricula is to lose sight of the ‘big picture’ (Laidlaw, 1981;
tional action. Conversely, without educational vigilance, new fields of MacPherson, 2004). Turning a blind eye to the taken-for-granted but
opportunity will lie fallow, inter-generational succession may be nevertheless profound threats of a hostile dominant culture risks
undermined, new start-ups won’t off-set the churn of failed co-ops, and capsizing the movement (Heras-Saizarbitoria & Basterretxea, 2016;
degeneration may threaten business failure or demutualization. Since Lamprinakis, 2020; Schewidy, 1996; Wilson, 2013). This section
the intangible cultural heritage of movement knowledge is easily taken therefore demonstrates cultural struggle’s importance to the move­
for granted, but can easily atrophy, this analysis therefore considers ment’s historical gains, current difficulties and future prospects.
adult education’s significance, scope, and the dilemmas it poses to MacPherson credits co-operation’s explosive 20th century growth to
contemporary co-operation. In particular, it interrogates how a public the many newspapers, journals, books and pamphlets propagating its
pedagogy can help bridge the communications gap by complementing cause (2007c). Yeo (2017) similarly argues Britain’s 19th century
the ‘inward and upward’ bias of educational conventionalism with tradition was defined by educational innovation, including press
‘outward and downward’ engagement (Freire, 2018; Giroux, 2010). activism. Early co-ops funded libraries, reading rooms and both sub­
An interdisciplinary study, it uses the traditions of cultural studies scribed and issued publications (Diamantopoulos, 2015; Fairbairn,
and communications theory, on the one hand, and the literatures of co- 1994; Harrison, 1969; Yeo, 2016). Much of early British co-operators’
operation’s economic and historical sociology, on the other hand, to education was thus achieved informally, in the pages of the Owenite,
interpret co-operative education’s evolving state. Hegemony theory radical, working class and co-operative press (Harrison, 1969; McCabe,
(Gramsci, 1959, 1971; Hall, 2011, 2014; Williams, 1973, 2011) focuses 1922; Thorne, 2017; Yeo, 2017). Dr. William King’s Co-operator re­
on how ruling class worldviews, such as the investor-owned firm’s flected and stoked this surge (Durr, 2017; Mercer, 1922), yielding “a
ideological pre-eminence, become diffused across society. It asks why small army of co-operative chronicles, magazines and miscellanies in the
exploited, impoverished and socio-economically excluded populations midlands and north” (Hollis, 1970, p. 101). George Jacob Holyoake
nevertheless consent to an investor-led political economy. Moreover, it (1906; Yeo, 2016) published several influential periodicals; his jour­
asks how ‘common sense’ understandings may devalue democratic nalism also defined the Rochdale imaginary that towers still over
forms of economic action, including co-operation. From a co-operative co-operation (Holyoake, 2016). Movement journalism provided simi­
studies standpoint, hegemony analysis thus problematizes the capi­ larly important catalysts elsewhere, including Canadian publications
talist firm’s social construction as the entrepreneurial norm. It encour­ such as the Antigonish movement’s Extension Bulletin, succeeded by the
ages critical scrutiny of the role of institutions such as schools and mass Maritime Co-operator; Ensemble in Québec; Prairie periodicals The Grain
media in the entwined cultural reproduction of capitalist predominance Growers’ Guide, The Western Producer and Co-operative Consumer; and the
and co-operatives’ marginalization. However, Gramscian perspectives Co-operative Union of Canada’s flagship title The Canadian Co-operator
also draw attention to the ways marginalized populations resist cultural (Brown, 1973; Diamantopoulos, 2014, 2015; MacPherson, 1985, 2007b;
domination by building counter-hegemonic institutions (e.g. Benello, Taylor, 2000; Welton, 2001). This ‘emergent culture’ laid the founda­
1992; Fuchs, 2010) and developing alternative and oppositional forms tions for the social mobilizations and economic achievements that fol­
of emergent culture (Williams, 1973). Overall, this tradition thus spot­ lowed (Diamantopoulos, 2012b; Gurney, 2017; Williams, 2011; Yeo,
lights culture’s importance as a terrain of co-operative struggle, 2017). In Gramscian terms, it was in these editorial agitations that many
uniquely enlarging our understanding of the fight for the public’s hearts ‘organic intellectuals’ of this new worldview first waged their ‘war of
and minds (e.g. Baldacchino, 1990; Grant, 2016; Yeo, 2017). position’ against exploitation, poverty and exclusion; against bourgeois
A mix of qualitative methods are used. Historical analysis first places hegemony, they popularized democratic hopes for collective economic
co-operation’s cultural subordination and defensive educational posture action.
in the context of contemporary capitalism’s evolving dominance. Tex­ Press activism thus empowered co-operators to seize the cultural
tual interpretation next examines the movement’s response to this offensive. Publications broke co-operators out of ignorance, isolation,
challenge. It parses public education’s treatment in the Report of the ICA and powerlessness; instead, they tied emergent publics together in
Commission on Co-operative Principles (ICA, 1967), the Statement on the continuing conversations. Vast classrooms for informal learning, their
Co-operative Identity (ICA, 1995), and the Guidance Notes to the press spurred face-to-face conversations in the home, workplace, pub
Co-operative Principles (ICA, 2016). These iterations of movement and coffee house. Movement journalism regularly reinforced their

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M. Diamantopoulos Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management 10 (2022) 100161

knowledge-sharing, sense of democratic power, and enthusiasm for Like competitive schooling, gladiatorial reality TV spectacles further
making change together. Periodicals thus both tutored early co- valorize personalized success and insensitivity to the plight of unworthy
operators and continually primed discursive and practical engagement losers. In this media culture’s aestheticized world of winners and losers,
with the movement. A vital mobilizing resource, it made co-operation co-operation becomes increasingly counter-intuitive.
visible, topical, and attractive to a wider public. Worse, television’s daily diet of violence culturally reproduces a
Of course, the contemporary cultural context is much changed. ‘mean world syndrome’ (Gerbner et al., 1980). Since heavy watchers
Monopolistic news-media have eliminated many mass-reach indepen­ view the real world as unrealistically mean and dangerous, they’re more
dent alternatives and marginalized others (Bagdikian, 2004; Harcup, likely to distrust others, fear becoming victims of crime, and support
2006; Herman, 2000; Sparks, 1985). Conversely, movement publica­ capital punishment or limitations of civil liberties. This cultivated
tions have been sacrificed by co-operators’ own cost-cutting (Dia­ distrust in others discourages social involvements. Moreover, heavy
mantopoulos, 2014). However, media ownership reflects deeper television watchers more frequently express racist attitudes and support
contradictions. On the one hand, contemporary publics are enfranchised punitive, ‘law and order’ policies. Reinforced by journalism’s decline
by rising educational attainments (Livingstone, 1999) and the internet’s and the online proliferation of lies, hate and conspiracy theories (Braun
unprecedented informational reach (Curran et al., 2016). On the other & Eklund, 2019; Happer et al., 2019; Nagle, 2017; Postman, 2006;
hand, these gains are uneven and exist alongside epidemic illiteracy Reinardy, 2011), this ‘culture of fear’ primes the pump of racist and
(Hedges, 2009), information overload (Kovach & Rosenstiel, 2011), xenophobic resentment (Glassner, 2018). As communities become
digital disruption of news-flows (Braun & Eklund, 2019), burn-out in increasingly distrustful, divided, and afraid, co-operation becomes yet
downsized newsrooms (Reinardy, 2011), and pervasive misinformation more difficult.
(Vosoughi et al., 2018). Mutualism’s nature and benefits are increas­ This toxic culture helps explain co-operation’s erosion in developed
ingly obscured by corporate green-washing, share-washing and ‘mem­ societies such as Canada. Movement leaders disregard these forces of
bership’ schemes (Findlay, 2018). Alternative forms of ‘social cultural demutualization at their peril (Bager, 1994; Diamantopoulos,
enterprise’ have further confused. Co-operative education therefore 2013; Lamprinakis, 2020). Beyond the sector’s blinkered preoccupation
assumes both new complexity and importance. with formalistic learning, this hostile cultural context highlights the
In this brave new world, co-operation is on the cultural defensive. importance of developing a popular counter-pedagogy to renew 21st
Against mutualist values (ICA, 1995), neo-liberal and century mutualism’s public reach and influence.
authoritarian-populist celebrations of a calloused, competitive individ­
ualism stir a powerful undertow (Fraser, 2019; Giroux, 2010; Hall, 2011; 4. Genre analysis of the ICA principles: Re-conceptualizing
Kellner, 2021). Of course, social solidarities’ breakdown and this educational practice for the 21st century
ascendant hyper-individualism are neither natural nor inevitable; they
have sociological underpinnings (e.g. Lasch, 2019; Putnam, 2000) and As we’ve seen, Canadian co-operation’s recent response to this
determined corporate and political sponsors (e.g. Carroll & Sapinski, hostile cultural environment has mostly been to retreat to the bunkers of
2010; Jones, 2015; Mayer, 2017; McQuaig & Brooks, 2013). The busi­ board rooms and classrooms, at a cost to public engagement. But how
ness press, corporate think tanks and management schools daily idealize representative of the world movement is that response? Co-operative
capitalism as the culture’s presumptive norm for entrepreneurial action. education’s evolving treatment within the ICA provides one weath­
This corporate bloc’s public pedagogy also encourages the formation of ervane for shifting international movement norms—and educational
monadic, self-seeking, neo-liberal consumers. introversion’s wider influence. Representing 318 co-operative federa­
For co-operation, this hegemonic conception of society—as a tions and organisations in 112 countries with over a billion members
battleground where predatory antagonists confront each other—has (ICA, 2021), this meta-organization doesn’t ‘determine’ educational
particularly corrosive effects: it depletes the social capital upon which practices. However, the Report of the ICA Commission on Co-operative
mutualism depends (Fairbairn et al., 1991; Restakis, 2010). Calls to Principles (ICA, 1967), its Statement on the Co-operative Identity (ICA,
collective action may therefore seem increasingly naïve, anachronistic 1995) and its Guidance Notes to the Co-operative Principles (ICA, 2016)
or bizarre. Even co-operators may succumb to a ‘spiral of silence’ in the had considerable discursive reach and global influence. Critically
face of uncomprehending or hostile opinion (Hampton et al., 2014; analyzing that evolving doctrine’s strategic coherence is therefore
Noelle-Neumann, 1974). Certainly, co-operation’s residual cultural ap­ important to identifying gaps, contradictions, or emerging challenges.
peal is stealthily eroded by this ‘common sense’ view that self-seeking Inter-textual comparison also surfaces semantic inconsistencies and
individualism is natural and others can’t be trusted. As this toxic cul­ shifting emphases over time. Genre analysis can thereby shed light on
tural environment normalizes anti-democratic cynicism and distrust in whether Canadian findings reflect international norms favouring
others (Pew Research Center, 2021), co-operation’s cultural resonance educational introversion; it can establish whether ICA doctrine also
erodes (Coletto, 2020; IPSOS and Université du Québec à Montréal, discounts public education on a world-scale.
2012).6 Meta-organizational mission statements such as the Statement are
Moreover, the implicit narrative of co-operation’s irrelevance is daily important corporate marketing tools (Sattari et al., 2011). However,
reinforced by media-culture’s systemic biases. Most obvious is the co-operation’s vast scope and scale, democratic governance, and moral
‘ticker-tape bias,’ which caters to advertisers’ and wealthy speculators’ authority lend ICA principles particular symbolic power and practical
interests by anchoring business news to stock market fluctuations; over- salience. Few documents touch the lives of billions and reach across such
reliance on these audiences and source networks renders co-operation diverse socio-economic sectors that earn trillions in annual revenues
increasingly invisible. Moreover, non-stop deification of celebrity en­ (ICA, 2021). Consequently, designating ‘co-operation among co-­
trepreneurs and millionaires from the worlds of sports and entertain­ operatives’ in 1967 or ‘concern for community’ in 1995 as new ‘prin­
ment heralds competitive individualism at collective aspirations’ ciples’ signaled their enhanced status, strengthened expansive
expense. Conversely, the prime-time stereotype of the incompetent, tendencies, and changed the co-operative world—even if in uneven,
working class buffoon reinforces a culture of humbling, shaming, and disparate and unpredictable ways (Levi, 2001). Moreover, while co-ops
one-upmanship that culturally disempowers millions (Leistyna, 2009). only have relative autonomy from profit-maximizing imperatives, their
members’ interests, movement values and democratic structures often
offer significant discretion (Novkovic, 2004). Indeed, this genre of
6
Nordic countries both defy this trend of declining trust (Mathiasen, movement texts’ dialogical character lends them particular significance.
Svendsen, et al., 2020) and are home to some of the world’s strongest Subject to disciplined intellectual scrutiny and democratic deliberation,
co-operative movements (Ekberg, 2017). they thus have the world movement’s ethico-political force behind

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M. Diamantopoulos Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management 10 (2022) 100161

them. contribute effectively to the development of their co-operative. They

The principles’ systematic propagation therefore reshapes global inform the general public, particularly young people and opinion
economic culture—fusing the combined popular impetus of economic leaders, about the nature and benefits of co-operation (ICA, 2016, p.
organization, cultural identity, and democratic engagement. As Holy­ 57).
oake put it, co-operation is a “moral art as well as a new form of econ­
There’s both continuity and change between the texts of 1967 and
omy” (in Yeo, 2017, p. 3). For example, the Statement commands
1995. However, this two-sentence formulation importantly signals a
substantial moral authority. By laying foundations for the 2001 United
new double-focus for co-operative learning. On the one hand, the first
Nations Guidelines (in Henrÿ, 2002, pp. 76–79) and the 2002 Interna­
sentence faces inward. It calls for in-house, non-formal training for di­
tional Labour Organization Recommendation No. 193 on the promotion of
rectors, staff and members to support everyone’s contribution to “their
co-operatives (ILO, 2002), it fostered legislative reforms and increased
co-operative”. On the other hand, the second sentence faces outward. It
mutualism’s profile (Birchall, 2005). Even spheres deviating from Alli­
prescribes educating the “general public” about co-operation’s “nature
ance principles, such as the Mondragón group, ‘build on’ the Statement’s
and benefits,” particularly youth and influential segments. Whereas the
considerable normative appeal (Novkovic, 2008).
public is only one of four audiences targeted by the 1967 Report, in 1995
Educationally, ICA principles are also used for training, evaluation
it’s elevated to one of two principal categories. Overall, these two sen­
and strategic planning. They influence how co-operators frame local
tences’ meaning is explicitly clear: co-op education must address both
issues and actions and lend the power of moral suasion to managers,
internal and external learning needs. It also implies balance—valuing
boards, staff and members. Although they aren’t legally binding, these
inward- and outward-facing missions equally. There’s a clear pivot to
normative guard-rails can importantly check mission drift (Puusa et al.,
the public.
2013). Statement norms also provide legitimacy to those challenging
corrupt or unethical practices, including conventional managerialism
that devalues those principles (Heras-Saizarbitoria & Basterretxea, 4.3. Education in the 2016 Guidance Notes
2016). Against isomorphic and degenerative pressures, this symbolic
resource can thus reaffirm principle-based leadership’s importance By issuing Guidance Notes to the Co-operative Principles in 2016, the
(Bager, 1994; Diamantopoulos, 2013, 2012a; Lamprinakis, 2020; Nov­ ICA’s Principles Committee discursively strengthened the Statement’s
kovic, 2008). application in the field. Encouraging leaders to reconsider local imple­
For all these reasons, the principles—including co-operative educa­ mentation, the Notes translated each principle into practical advice. For
tion—are periodically subject to careful scrutiny. while the Statement had importantly informed global practice, its
concision opened it to varied interpretations. Conceptual fuzziness or
4.1. Education in the 1967 Report strategic blind-spots could thus have far-reaching implications. Two
decades after the Statement’s ratification, the Notes also provided a new
Of all ICA principles education may receive the greatest reverence. generation with a fresh incentive, planning tool and educational
Making other principles’ effective application possible, it’s considered resource for translating theory to practice.
the “principle of principles” (Levi, 2001). Deeply rooted in the Rochdale The 120-page document was developed over three years by a com­
mythos (Fairbairn, 1994; Holyoake, 2016), consider the 1967 Report’s mittee of ICA directors and expert advisors (ICA, 2016). The board,
evangelistic injunction: “the spirit of Co-operation … has to be awak­ sectoral organizations and regional offices all reviewed drafts. In the
ened in and renewed in every generation that takes over the work of the wake of the International Year of Co-operatives in 2012, its publication
Movement from its predecessors. That awakening and renewal depend, gained prominence and importance. However, the committee also suf­
more than anything, upon the care and assiduity with which each gen­ fered from the fading historical perspective of movement elders present
eration keeps the torch of education aflame” (ICA, 1967, p. 36). Arguing at the 1995 Congress; symbolizing this break with its reformist and
“it is no mere coincidence that so many eminent pioneers and leaders of expansive mood was the death of Statement architect Ian MacPherson in
Co-operation have been also great popular educators” (p. 34), that 2013. Indeed, like all consensus documents, it largely reflected a mini­
Commission proposed an international training centre. Yet education malist program.
was understood also as a continuing project: “Less and less in the The Notes pool innovative advice on formal and non-formal learning.
contemporary world can education be limited to what is learnt in However, unlike the Statement’s balanced articulation of inward- and
schools and colleges at special periods of people’s lives. The public-facing missions, dedicating one sentence to each, the Notes skew
Co-operative concept is of education as a life-long process”. This blanket heavily toward internal education. 21 paragraphs of education’s 34
endorsement, including the general public, later guided deliberations paragraph guidance section address insider constituencies; only 13
leading to 1995’s Congress: concern the public. Focusing on classrooms and boardrooms, while
neglecting newsrooms and radio and television studios, this suggests
5. All co-operative societies should make provision for the education publicizing the movement is much less important than training its
of their members, officers, and employees and of the general public, leadership.
in the principles and techniques of Co-operation, both economic and Despite the Notes’ many merits, journalism and media activism are
democratic (p. 37). nearly invisible. Its 120 pages don’t once use the terms “journalism,”
“journalist” or “reporter”. It observes that “co-ops are rarely taught in
mainstream schools, law schools, sociology and other relevant areas of
4.2. Education in the 1995 Statement
study” (2016, p. 65) but never mentions journalism schools. Moreover,
the amorphous category of “opinion leaders” leaves journalists’ role,
Over 10,000 co-operators world-wide discussed the principles from
their institutions’ importance, and the significance of media coverage
the late 1980s through the early 90 s (MacPherson, 2007f). Beginning
equally vague. Despite Hartley’s observation that journalism is “the
with a questionnaire, a reference group discussed early drafts, an advi­
primary sense-making practice of modernity” (1996, p. 32), news pro­
sory panel of 50 vetted four versions and meetings with the ICA board all
duction and the public sphere thus practically disappear. The Notes also
preceded the Statement’s debate and adoption at the 1995 Congress
overlook important solutions such as campaigning for structural media
(MacPherson, 2007e). Stressing the public’s importance, Congress
reform, supporting news co-ops and progressive think-tanks, or
redefined learning’s role:
advancing critical journalism education and media literacies.
Co-operatives provide education and training for their members, Apart from oblique references to harnessing “new technologies,” the
elected representatives, managers and employees so they can Notes urge co-operators to seek “equal prominence” to coverage “given

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M. Diamantopoulos Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management 10 (2022) 100161

to investor owned businesses”. Petitioning for fairness can “challenge Indeed, the document offers little to a world in which everyday life and
the way the sector is ignored” (ICA, 2016, p. 64). However, invoking learning are increasingly mediated (Hartley, 1996; Kovach & Rosenstiel,
professional ideals against powerful commercial forces and systemic 2011; Postman, 2006; Vosoughi et al., 2018). Yet the Notes leave the
biases is unlikely to overcome them (Gans, 2003). Nor will pinning door ajar to expanding the scope for future initiatives. Although no
hopes on technological salvation (Curran et al., 2016). Diverse owner­ known co-operative uses tax havens (Berglez & Gearing, 2018; Ober­
ship models are clearly needed to discipline monopoly media power and maier & Obermayer, 2017), it notes “this is not perceived by the public
support inclusive, quality journalism and viewpoint diversity (Boyle, or politicians as one of the benefits of co-operative enterprise” (ICA,
2012; Curran, 2012; Hackett & Carroll, 2006; McChesney & Nichols, 2016, p. 68). Certainly, co-operatives should support muckraking jour­
2011); a singular focus on petitioning corporate media distracts from nalism. For co-operation’s case largely falls flat when unaccompanied by
such prospects. a critique—and running inventory—of capitalism’s many, continuing
Despite paying homage to pioneers of British co-operative journal­ failings. Tax-havens illustrate the importance of building capacity to
ism, King and Holyoake, there’s no mention of news co-operatives, such rapidly intervene in wide-ranging and topical public debates,
as the multi-stakeholder co-operatives that publish Co-op News (est. spotlighting co-operative solutions from community reinvestment to
1851) or New Internationalist (est. 1973) or influential dailies such as daycare to green energy. For example, the UK benefits from a Co-op
Italy’s Il Manifesto (est. 1963), Berlin’s Die Tageszeitung (Taz) (est. 1978) Party to influence public opinion and hone policy proposals (Kippin,
or Uruguay’s La Diaria (est. 2006). Neither France’s Alternatives 2019; Vorberg-Rugh & Whitecross, 2016; Yeo, 2002). Lacking this
Économique (est. 1980) nor Uruguay’s Brecha (est. 1985) are mentioned mechanism elsewhere makes other strategies for popular learning more
despite being their countries’ second most-read weeklies (Alternatives urgent.
Économique, 2019; CICOPA, 2019). Co-operative penetration into the
realms of community radio, cable television, and online-only journalism 5. Conjunctural analysis: Re-contextualizing educational
are similarly overlooked. For example, in the year the Guidance Notes struggles for the 21st century
were published, the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatch­
ewan (i.e. Regina, with a Census Metropolitan Area population of 263, Official ICA doctrine illustrates education’s evolving and contradic­
184 in 2020) was home to four media co-operatives: a French-language tory interpretations. However, textual analysis alone can’t explain what
newspaper (est. 1971), a cable television co-operative that also offers forces made, then remade, the Statement’s mobile consensus. Of course,
phone and internet services (est. 1974), a film and video producers’ ICA doctrine can only imperfectly reflect a vast viewpoint diversity.
co-operative (est. 1977) and an English-language alternative city-paper Each iteration also expresses limitations to participation imposed on
(est. 1993). poorer countries, resource-poor emerging sectors, marginalized pop­
In a moment of media crisis and innovation, addressing such over­ ulations and those with lower educational attainments and English-
sights matter because alternative journalism plays a significant educa­ language fluency. Since each text thus reflects a fleeting, fragile, and
tional role. Indeed, for at least one theorist, the sector is defined by the uneven consensus, periodic revisions sustain a minimum basis of unity
fact it “argues for the advancement of a co-operative society” (Fuchs, for movement advance. This genre’s texts thus freeze the consensus view
2010, p. 173). Consider that readers from every country except four even as conditions and views continue to evolve. Co-operators thus
visited Co-op News’ site in 2019 (Co-op News, 2020). By addressing an ‘decode’ these texts in light of their own subsequent experience. Revised
online classroom that cross-cuts regions, sectors, and positions, Co-op texts illustrate how co-operators periodically ‘recode’ them, re-rooting
News ties co-operators together in a process of lifelong, collective them in the shifting sands of emerging conjunctures. In other words,
learning. The formal instruction delivered by Britain’s Co-operative to understand the Notes’ inward re-coding of educational priorities after
College and Co-op News’ informal curriculum play complementary 1995, context matters.
roles, a fact symbolically expressed by their co-occupancy of a building Space allows only a cursory overview. By 2016 a new generation
named for Holyoake, both an adult educator and movement journalist manoeuvred on transformed terrain. Neither a neutral nor autonomous
(Holyoake, 1906; Royle, 1974; Yeo, 2017). However, the Notes only process located ‘outside’ the movement, neo-liberal globalization
reflect half this reality. While the role of formal institutions such as destabilized and imposed a ‘structural adjustment’ on educational
Co-operative College is very clear, it’s unclear what role news practice (Beland, 2000; Diamantopoulos, 2015; Fulton, 2000; Mac­
co-operatives such as Co-op News, Taz, the New Internationalist or Alter­ Pherson, 2002; Woodin, 2014). Following Gramsci, its role was to
natives Économique play in millions’ every-day, informal learning about “create a terrain more favourable to the dissemination of certain modes
co-operation. This exclusion implies they’re unimportant. Yet, their of thought, and certain ways of posing and resolving questions” (1971,
multi-generational, broad-based and continuing contributions expand p. 377). This ideological-cultural terrain was more conducive to certain
co-operation’s educational scope, reach, and frequency—thus bringing new ‘modes of thought’ for co-operators. The reassertion of technocratic
co-operative pedagogy’s practice into more balanced alignment with the hegemony within the sector provides just one example (Dia­
Statement. They help co-operation break out of its echo chambers, span mantopoulos, 2013; Laidlaw, 1981). Whereas the Statement protests
the communication gap and popularize mutualist perspectives on timely technocratic influence, attempting to temper it with a moderate demo­
and topical public issues. Paradoxically, the Notes’ tilt to board-rooms cratic reformism, the Notes reflect its consolidation as crises encouraged
and classrooms thus distracts from the fight for public engagement a firm-based, siege mentality and shifted discursive power to
emphasized in 1995. This introverted approach uncritically reproduces market-instrumentalism and strong managerial leadership. As the
the sectoral consciousness and enterprise egoism of a fragmented and Statement and Notes illustrate, educational conflicts are thus resolved in
defensive movement; it thereby ratifies the communication gap between different ways at different times, depending on prevailing conditions
the movement and its publics. and constellations of power. In this case, the normative ‘centre’ reflected
In sum, the Notes make many landmark contributions that lay a wider shift from movement to operational priorities.
beyond this paper’s scope. However, its conventionalist pedagogy ne­ Conjunctural analysis of educational reform and retrenchment’s
glects the public and devalues media-activism. It ignores that media- opposed forces thus offers additional explanatory power; it points to
culture has overtaken schooling as developed societies’ dominant strategic (rather than normative or conceptual) barriers and pathways to
educational force (Giroux, 2010). It also skirts the strategic imperative popular learning. Against the idealist notion that co-operation’s identity
to teach critical media literacy and support alternative media to close innocently expresses a virtuous inner logic, this approach unpacks
the gap between society’s ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ (Kellner & Share, conflicting interests and divisions which foster movement tensions and
2005). Structural media reform is similarly neglected (Bagdikian, 2004; blocks and which often reflect external conditions. It casts light on the
Curran, 2012; Hackett & Carroll, 2006; McChesney & Nichols, 2011). persistence of an introverted educational ethos despite early warnings

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M. Diamantopoulos Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management 10 (2022) 100161

(Laidlaw, 1981) and 1995’s remedial efforts to narrow the communi­ 2014 (Grace, 2014), and the Notes in 2016 (ICA, 2016). The Statement’s
cation gap. popular turn nudged the movement toward multi-stakeholder co-­
operation’s new possibilities (Levi, 2001). By MacPherson’s account, the
5.1. Encoding educational reform in the Statement, and the democratic Statement was a great success (MacPherson, 2007f). In Canada, new
turn to the public, 1995 momentum prompted financial co-operative Desjardins to host the
biennial International Summit of Co-operatives in 2012, 2014 and 2016.
In 1995 many felt public understanding was declining because co- The latter included over 3000 participants from 113 countries. (Patter­
operatives had failed to effectively educate beyond their ranks. More son, 2019). In Britain, co-operation was “in fashion” again (Webster
dangerous than competitive or political threats, Statement architect Ian et al., 2012). Like Britons (Wilson et al., 2013), Africans celebrated a
MacPherson argued “faith in co-operation was waning” (2007e, p. 203). co-operative ‘renaissance’ (Birchall, 2011; Develtere et al., 2008). The
Laidlaw (1981) had earlier diagnosed a triple crisis: a crisis for the ICA’s educational pivot to the public appeared to narrow co-operation’s
model’s credibility; a managerial crisis, as the movement struggled to communication gap with at least some of its publics.
check technocrats’ rising power; and an ideological crisis, reflecting the This emergent pivot to public pedagogy as co-equal to internal
movement’s mission drift. Indeed, concerns about public understanding training thus reflected an expansive movement-building leitmotif, begun
(Coopérativas de las Americas, 2014; Yu, 2021) and an identity crisis with the 1967 addition of the “co-operation among co-operatives”
(Anderson & Henehan, 2005; Somerville, 2007) persist. The Statement’s principle and extended in 1995 with “concern for community”. In
democratic-reformism responded to this crisis discourse. Gramscian terms, co-operation’s moral and intellectual rearticulation
Forces for reform expanded education’s scope in 1995. Against progressively consolidated co-operators’ ‘historical bloc,’ first fusing co-
public disengagement, Laidlaw (1981) had challenged the movement to operatives into more cohesive development coalitions and then better
show how co-operatives could solve the world’s problems. Congress rooting them in their communities.7 Like the Statement’s rebalanced
similarly tasked co-operators everywhere with addressing the “general pedagogy, each new principle deepened the discursive breakout from
public” (ICA, 1995). MacPherson’s papers suggest the Statement also sectoral fragmentation and enterprise egoism toward a more extroverted
reflected the “perception that the movement was limiting its future by mutuality (Diamantopoulos, 2012a; Levi, 2001, 2006). Against a
ignoring youth” and that co-operators were “failing to explain well defensive focus on bureaucratic maintenance and growth of existing
enough the values and purpose of the movement to people such as firm positions, this integral conception invited concerted movement
politicians, public servants, educators, and commentators” (2007e, p. expansion as the community interest’s champion. Publishing Blueprint
214). Expanding educational reach addressed what framers like Mac­ for a Co-operative Decade later made this thrust explicit (Mills & Davies,
Pherson considered co-operation’s most urgent crisis: declining popular 2013). Certainly, the Statement assigned public education an important
appeal. role in driving movement renewal.
For MacPherson, co-operation’s marginalization partly reflected the
“hegemonic ascendency of capital via the state, media and business 5.2. Re-coding educational retrenchment in the Notes and the
schools” (2007f, p. 262). In fact, the Statement both celebrated the ICA’s technocratic restoration, 2016
centenary and reacted to neo-liberalism’s rise. As multinational corpo­
rations seized the development initiative the context of co-operatives’ What then explains the Notes’ retreat from the Statement’s enthu­
manoeuvre was transformed, profoundly disrupting nation-state co-­ siasm for public engagement? Like the Canadian pattern (Hancock &
operation’s economic, policy and socio-cultural foundations (Dia­ Brault, 2016; Novkovic, 2006), the Notes ratify an inward- and
mantopoulos, 2011; Fairbairn, 2006; MacPherson, 2004; Reed & upward-skew, with internal education over-shadowing the Statement’s
McMurtry, 2008; Novkovic & Webb, 2014; Webster et al., 2016; urgent emphasis on public education by a ratio of almost two paragraphs
Zamagni & Zamagni, 2010). Markets were deregulated. State interven­ to one. Although space doesn’t permit detailed examination, at least five
tion was radically curbed. A network of corporate think tanks, front forces fostered educational retrenchment on the ground.
groups, and media holdings cultivated a new ‘common sense,’ placing First, with substantial training needs, limited organizational capac­
the investor-owned firm and entrepreneurial individualism at its centre ities and firm-focused horizons, attachment to professional practices
(Berry, 2019; Carroll & Sapinski, 2010; Giroux, 2010; Hall, 2011; Mayer, invariably pulls education’s focus back to comfortably familiar class­
2017; Rich, 1999). Against this ascendant market populism, growing rooms and boardrooms. As MacPherson (1987) warns, co-ops may even
distrust in collective action posed an especial challenge to co-operative lose the institutional memory and know-how to organize popular
educators. Following the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet campaigns.
Union’s 1991 collapse, collectivism was heavily discounted. As capi­ Second, new competitive conditions brought a new fiscal realism.
talism appeared triumphant (Fukuyama, 2006), co-operators faced a Eager to retreat to firm-focused training and prune discretionary ex­
new skepticism (Miliband, 1995; Wilson et al., 2013). penses, public education’s bottom-line results could appear diffuse,
Like the privatization mania decimating public sectors, a wave of co- delayed, and even dubious (Diamantopoulos, 2013). The ICA’s view that
operative failures (Schewidy, 1996), take-over bids (Wilson, 2013) and the International Summit “was not viable” after 2016 was symptomatic
demutualizations followed in globalization’s wake (Sousa & Herman, of eroding fiscal and discursive foundations for co-operative education
2012). For example, leading Canadian agricultural co-operatives, the (Patterson, 2019). Short-term cost-cutting squeezed both co-ops’ and
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, DairyWorld, and Lilydale were privatized apex organizations’ educational capacities.
(Fulton & Hueth, 2009) and Québec’s industrial credit union (caisse Third, regulatory, technological, and competitive challenges fav­
d’économie), fishery, and consumer cooperative federations collapsed oured investing in firm-based competence, including expert recruitment
(Lévesque, 1990). Similarly, a major co-op housing expansion in the 80 to boards and specialized management training. In a binary logic
s, one of Canadian history’s most successful state-sector partnerships, counter-posing market and movement objectives, internal training was
was “undermined by extensive media misinformation and government deemed mission-critical with public education discounted or
cutbacks” (MacPherson, 2007a, p. 174). On the defensive, co-operators’
faith in movement progress faltered.
The Statement thus strove to check a reinvigorated global capital­ 7
An historical bloc is a “strategic alignment of classes, class fractions and
ism’s hegemony and challenge the sector’s own inertia. It set the stage popular groupings whose interests and outlook are realised within the project
for the United Nations’ declaration of the International Year of Co- and whose coalescence establishes an organic relation between (the economic)
operatives and the publication of Blueprint for a Co-operative Decade in base and (the ideological-cultural) superstructure” (Carroll & Ratner, 1989, p.
2012 (Mills & Davies, 2013), the first Global Census of Co-operatives in 30).

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M. Diamantopoulos Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management 10 (2022) 100161

indefinitely delayed. one hand, movement idealists asserted an expansive theory of popular
Fourth, the Notes reflected ‘common sense’ views of what counted as education as equal in importance to internal training; they expressed an
education in regions made-over by neo-liberalism, reinforcing co-oper­ optimistic ‘structure of feeling’ and spoke the language of movement-
ators’ market-driven turn toward education-as-training (Apple, 2018). building, finding their voice and vindication in the 1995 Statement. On
Focussed investments in leaderships’ skills emphasized technical the other hand, firm-based retrenchment against competitive and reg­
expertise, a ‘back to basics’ focus on work-readiness, and bottom-line ulatory threats subsequently eroded this fragile consensus. Strength­
results. ening an increasingly dominant faction of ‘traders’ whose case for strong
Finally, MacPherson (2007e) recounts a “celebration of member­ management, market pragmatism and a single bottom line focus reso­
ship” animating much discussion around updating the principles. Its nated with an increasingly defensive structure of feeling (Briscoe, 1971),
importance was largely treated as self-evident in 1967. By 1995 things this conjuncture favoured their case for educational retrenchment. As
had changed. In the intensely competitive conditions of a globalizing technical expertise and, therefore, management and director training
political economy co-operators no longer took members’ loyalty for gained new importance on the ground, this shifting movement
granted. One unintended consequence of this defensive emphasis on consensus was reflected in the Notes’ internal focus.
securing existing members’ loyalty was to compound educational Certainly, the 1995 Congress’s project for movement regeneration
introversion. met entrenched bureaucratic and ideological resistance. However, his­
In short, crisis conditions created by corporate globalization and torical conditions on the ground also shifted between 1995’s Statement
rapid technological change continued to strengthen technocratic co- and the Notes of 2016. Similarly, resisting difficult demands implied by
operation’s hegemony after 1995 (Diamantopoulos, 2013). Popular the Statement doesn’t simply spell reforming tendencies’ conclusive
education was rolled back as co-ops refocused resources to competitive defeat. Canadian co-operative leaders’ recent concerns about weak
priorities; similarly, concentrating control in managers’ hands ensured public awareness illustrates that the unintended consequences of under-
swift executive action. Firm-focused reassertion of managerial priorities investing in popular learning are once again back ‘on the agenda’ (Yu,
and control thus tempered 1995’s expansive enthusiasms ‘from above’. 2021). Co-operative education’s theory and practice are thus evolving
Moreover, the Statement’s public turn became increasingly dissonant in and conflictual works-in-progress, often complicated by mixed messages
terms of many elected officials’ evolving everyday experiences ‘from (ICA, 1995, 2016) and reflective of larger, contradictory historical
below’. In contrast with that formal movement commitment, many felt forces.
the strong need for defensive retreat from movement prior­
ities—particularly in sectors most exposed to technological change, 6. Conclusion: Re-inventing the media and re-making co-
deregulation, and new market competition. If the Statement had encoded operative publics
the movement-building spirit of 1995, this defensive ‘structure of
feeling’ would encourage new decodings. ‘Negotiated’ readings might Against the backdrop of eroding public support for co-operation, this
justify temporarily reducing or deferring commitments. ‘Oppositional’ article critically analyzed the most recent iterations of international co-
readings may simply dismiss such expenditures as unrealistic, operation’s evolving educational orthodoxy, the Statement on the Co-
pie-in-the-sky idealism. Consultations building to the Notes’ 2016 pub­ operative Identity and its Guidance Notes. Reflecting a perceived crisis
lication reflected this shifting economic, cultural, and political terrain of public support, co-operative education’s 1995 redefinition explicitly
and a new generation’s preoccupation with shoring up their firms’ core urged co-ops to “educate the general public.” Having constitutionalized
competencies. The dreams of 1995 faded as a volatile and threatening that imperative, Congress left its realization to local actors. However,
world economy kindled an uncompromising market pragmatism. international public opinion surveys from 2012 (IPSOS and Université
du Québec à Montréal, 2012) and Canadian polls from 2020 demon­
5.3. Conjunctural shifts and the ‘contradictory consensus’ on co-operative strate popular ignorance and apathy’s stubborn persistence. Unsurpris­
education ingly then, public awareness was Canadian sector leaders’ leading
concern in 2019, 2020 and 2021 (Yu, 2021). Similar concerns have been
The Statement is thus a unifying, yet contradictory, discourse. It registered across the Americas (Coopérativas de las Americas, 2014).
ostensibly bridges a vast, multi-organizational field’s positional, Further research on this neglected problem is clearly crucial.
geographic, sectoral, and other differences. However, the aspirational Yet, as the paper also showed, public education met resis­
performance of elected officials eager to symbolically affirm “the co- tance—much as the regenerative project of the Blueprint for a Co-
operative difference” in 1995 may not align with co-operators’ day-to- operative Decade had to overcome resistance posed by degenerative
day business decisions. In this sense, the ‘consensus’ discourse is also pressures (Diamantopoulos, 2013). The 2016 Notes narrowed and
contradictory. re-contextualized education’s scope. The Statement’s expansive
Rather than the uncontested expression of a monolithic world commitment met the headwinds of technocratic power, established
movement, the Statement is a particular moment’s symbolic artefact, traditions, residual enterprise egoism and fiscal and ideological con­
reflecting the balance of social and ideological forces in 1995. Moreover, straints. The opposition between the Statement’s outward aspirations
this consensus document’s subsequent reception, decoding and re- and the Notes’ inward bias thus reflected co-operative education’s
contextualization may vary widely across sectors, regions, and posi­ deeply rooted tension—between democratic agitation, movement
tions. Its application may thus encounter resistance in the field as regeneration and educational reform, on the one hand, and market
shifting conditions, discourses and power-balances erode its perceived pragmatism, bureaucratic maintenance, and educational retrenchment,
relevance. For example, friction between the ICA’s celebratory rhetoric on the other. Also a consensus document, the Notes reflected changing
and deeply inscribed managerial discourses may slow implementation conditions and movement emphases two decades after the Statement.
(Heras-Saizarbitoria & Basterretxea, 2016). Neither organizational Certainly, co-operators face many constraints in translating theory to
equilibrium nor conflict-free consensus can therefore be assumed. practice. This article has mentioned only a few. Future strategies can
Rather, it’s largely to repair the principles’ misalignment through such benefit from careful, local accounting. However, honouring the letter
re-contextualization in the field that the Notes were developed; their and intent of principle five’s 1995 redefinition—and overcoming public
publication recognizes interpretation is uneven, subject to conflict and disinterest—implies an end to sacrificing public education in the name
difficult. The Notes thus carry the burden of normative arbiter, bringing of specialized board and managerial training. Instead, it suggests
clarity and cohesion to potentially chaotic disputes and raising the level restoring balance. In short, these inward- and outward-facing missions
of continuing debates. aren’t contradictory but the tension between them does constitute a
Educational struggles similarly engage competing tendencies. On the paradox. While the Statement emphasized expanding popular reach, the

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Notes’ fractured, inward-turning focus threatens to restrict co-opera­ Birchall, J. (2011). People-centred businesses. People-centred businesses (pp. 1–19).
Springer.
tion’s message to echo chambers of the already converted; continued
Bouchard, M. J. (2017). Innovation and the social economy. University of Toronto Press.
erosion of public awareness will likely result from that educational Boyle, D. (2012). Good News. A co-operative solution to the media crisis. Manchester: Co-
status quo. However, movement-wide initiatives for popular learning Operatives UK.
can deepen co-operation’s cultural resonance, expand emerging sectors, Braun, J. A., & Eklund, J. L. (2019). Fake news, real money: Ad tech platforms, profit-
driven hoaxes, and the business of journalism. Digital Journalism, 7(1), 1–21.
and regenerate the movement. Campaigns for structural media reform, Brennen, B. S. (2000). What the hacks say: The ideological prism of US journalism texts.
news co-op and progressive think-tank start-ups, and advancing critical Journalism, 1(1), 106–113.
journalism education and media literacies all represent opportunities to Briscoe, R. (1971). Traders and idealists: A study of the dilemmas of consumers’ co-operatives
[PhD Thesis]. Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University.
change the conversation to include co-operative perspectives. For Brown, L. (1973). The progressive tradition in Saskatchewan. Canada and radical social
example, the ICA and national co-operative leaders might pledge tech­ change (pp. 62–87). Black Rose Books Ltd..
nical and financial assistance to replicate Alternatives Économique’s Carroll, W., K., & Ratner, R. (1989). Social democracy, neo-conservatism and hegemonic
crisis in British Columbia. Critical Sociology, 16(1), 29–53. https://doi.org/10.1177/
success, thus expanding popular understanding in other national 089692058901600102
contexts. Carroll, W. K., & Sapinski, J. P. (2010). The global corporate elite and the transnational
To conclude, this analysis has argued for informal learning’s value as policy-planning network, 1996-2006: A structural analysis. International Sociology,
25(4), 501–538.
a ‘third front’ in co-operative education because it uniquely reaches the Chamard, J. (2004). Co-operatives and credit unions in economics and business texts:
public—as urged by the Statement (ICA, 1995). While the Notes (ICA, Changing the paradigm. International Journal of Co-operative Management, 1(2),
2016) discount these measures, such omissions demand the closest, 34–40.
Chapman, H. E. (2012). Sharing my life: Building the co-operative movement. Centre for the
continuing scrutiny. For the Statement sets a tone, hierarchy of impor­
Study of Co-operatives, University of Saskatchewan.
tance and evaluative framework for the world movement. With the ex­ CICOPA. (2019). Uruguayan media cooperatives are in astonishingly good health. CICOPA.
piry of the co-operative decade which gave rise to the Blueprint for a https://www.cicopa.coop/news/uruguayan-media-cooperatives-are-in-astonis
Co-operative Decade, renewed interest in the Sustainable Development hingly-good-health/.
Coletto, D. (2020). Co-operatives and mutuals in the age of uncertainty. Abacus. https://ca
Goals (Birchall, 2004; Wanyama, 2016) and the daunting project of nada.coop/sites/canada.coop/files/research_results_en_final.pdf.
post-pandemic reconstruction before the movement, co-operators are at Co-op News. (2020). Annual report. Co-op News. https://www.thenews.coop/wp-content
a complex crossroads. As recent Canadian and international findings /uploads/Annual-Report-2020_final.pdf.
Co-op News. (2021). About The Co-op News. https://www.thenews.coop/about/.
reinforce, public support can’t be taken for granted. However, as this Coopérativas de las Americas. (2014). Declaratión cooperativa de Cartgegena. http://www.
interpretation has demonstrated, contradictory international norms aciamericas.coop/IMG/pdf/declaracioncooperativacartagena2014.pdf.
confuse rather than inform co-operation’s effective popularization. This Crewe, J. (1999). An educational institute of untold value: The evolution of the Co-operative
College of Canada, 1953-1987. Centre for the Study of Co-operatives, University of
paper has therefore identified several options for advancing public Saskatchewan.
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research. However, what the world can ill afford is continued neglect Curran, J., Fenton, N., & Freedman, D. (2016). Misunderstanding the internet. Routledge.
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Diamantopoulos, M. (2014). On breaking a wild young colt: Associative intelligence,
alternative journalism and the cultural mutualisation of the Canadian Prairies.
None.
Journal of Co-operative Studies, 47(1), 39–55.
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Dr. Diamantopoulos is an associate professor at the University of Regina’s School of
B. Fairbairn, I. MacPherson, & N. Russell (Eds.), Canadian co-operatives in the year
Journalism, which he chaired for 8 years. Before defecting to the academy, Mitch co-
2000: Memory, mutual aid and the millenium (pp. 57–79). Centre for the Study of Co-
founded a worker co-operative. He served Hullabaloo Publishing for 15 years. Mitch has
operatives.
since published on many co-operative topics and now serves on the board of the Canadian
Thorne, R. (2017). Change and continuity in the development of co-operation, 1827-
Association for Studies in Co-operation (CASC). He is also a Research Fellow with the
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Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives (CCSC).

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