Stories.coop: the cooperative memory project

[Michel Bauwens]

Marcelo Vieta:

As some of you know, I have recently started a post-doctoral fellowship at the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises

(affiliated with the the University of Trento), in Trento, Italy ( www.euricse.eu).

Most of you also know that 2012 is the UN's International Year of Cooperatives. As one of the many celebrations around the world to
commemorate this year of the cooperative, EURICSE, in collaboration withthe International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), is spearheading the
stories.coop initiative (www.stories.coop), where one cooperative fromanywhere in the world is featured everyday--a different coop each day for
the entire year. By the end of this year, EURICSE and the ICA will havecollected 366 stories. Stories.coop will remain as a depository of
cooperative memory, and the ICA will later be publishing some of thesestories in a book for posterity. The team working on this initiative hereat EURICSE has asked me to spread the word about this great initiative forpromoting the cultural, social, and economic alternatives offeredby cooperatives broadly, and for highlighting the diversity of specific
cooperative experiences. In this time of deep crisis of our contemporaryheconomic system, I can't think of a better way to spread the word about thepossibilities for another mode of economic and social life inherent to the
cooperative model.



If you belong to a cooperative, I invite you to upload your story tohstories.coop, or send along a brief write-up of your coop to me and I will
send it on to the team of writers here that will upload your story.

You can also send me or stories.coop pictures of your coop, a logo, and, if you have a brief video of your coop uploaded to YouTube, stories.coop can also feature it. The stories should be in English, but we can help with translations here if needed.



If you know of a great cooperative in your part of the world, please spread the word to them. Or, send along their contact information to me or to
stories.coop and EURICSE will contact them to see if they would be interested in participating. Stories.coop is particularly interested in knowing about more cooperatives from Latin America, Africa, and Asia, but any cooperative experience from any part of the world is of interest.



Among the advantages to participating in this initiative are:

-- the promotion of the cooperative and its story all over the world

-- getting viewed by thousands of visitors that go to the stories.coopwebsite on a regular basis

-- networking with other cooperatives, and

-- totally free participation not linked to any form of for-profit or commercial interest whatsoever.



I invite you to take a look at the almost 70 cooperative stories that have
been published so far at www.stories.coop/stories .

For the cooperative
story featured today, go directly to www.stories.coop .