The New European Bauhaus – innovation versus institutionalisation 22 April 2024
Posted by cooperatoby in social economy.Tags: EU, social enterprise, socil innovation, urban
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I went to the final conference of Diesis’s SEA4NEB project, held in the wake of the New European Bauhaus Festival last week, and was pleasantly surprised.
I got to wondering how it is that good ideas get traction. NEB combines three values: beauty, sustainability and inclusion, and three principles: participation, multi-level engagement and transdisciplinarity. If you wonder why ‘beauty’ is among them take a train ride from Brussels to Amsterdam (as I often do) and compare function and form in the way the Belgian and Dutch use concrete. It reminds me of how Jean Claude Delfosse, presenter of Le Journal des Grand Travaux Inutiles, memorably celebrated “l’école belge du beton”.
Ursula Von der Leyen describes the NEB as “the soul of the European green Deal”. At the conference, Artur Cavalho of the NEB Unit described it as being about nothing less than “how we should live in the future”. It’s one of those cross-cutting ideas like social innovation that follow an interesting policy mainstreaming cycle: they start off as good ideas without a home or funding, but are adopted by a Commission President (Von der Leyen in this case, Manuel Barroso in the case of social innovation), and work their way step by step into funding programmes. This process is under way with the NEB, which new has an active community of 1,400 people and is soon to be granted its own research funding – implementation is still dependent on other funding streams. 2025 should see the NEB Facility launched, with €120m a year of Horizon funding.
I haven’t made my mind up whether this is a good or a bad thing. A good idea like community-led local development grew up in the 80s and was taken up with gusto as a rural and coastal development tool, but has got bogged down in issues of financial management as other funds like the ERDF and ESF ask themselves whether delegating spending decisions to local people is really a good idea, and can it be controlled. At the moment the idealism of the NEB shines through. If it succeeds in mainstreaming itself, it risks losing its clarity.
The concept is only partially percolating through to the Structural Funds. It is mentioned in the partnership agreements of 24 member states, and in 225 operational programmes. The ERDF has no problem applying it to infrastructure, notably through the Urban Innovative Actions. However the ESF has been reluctant to address the inclusion dimension. This is where Diesis’s case studies can be enlightening.
Desire not need
In infrastructure terms, the NEB wants to buildings that promote diversity, accessibility and affordability. Diesis’s case studies go much deeper. For instance the MeSSinA Foundation in Sicily aims to provide not what rural areas ‘need’, but what they ‘desire’. Initially this distinction escaped me, but I now see that it makes a lot of sense: need is passive but desire is active. Territories are more than resources to be exploited.
Like the NEB, the social economy is a movement. It has struggled for official recognition, and over the last few years has won over the UN, the ILO, the EU and even the OECD. However in so doing, it has constantly to fend off pressure to water itself down, to drop the principles of democratic control and limited profit distribution, and to accommodate itself to capital. Some of us believe it should be more than an ambulance service for capitalism, a real alternative which is engaged in the issues that really matter, like climate change and inequality.
It is the NEB’s insistence on participation and inclusiveness that are key, and give the social economy a natural leading role – self-government is the highest level of participation the NEB strives for. The good practices DIESIS puts forward include community land trusts, community-led design, Territorial Social Responsibility, and innovative financing and business models. Read them here.
Westmalle deco-operativises 4 March 2023
Posted by cooperatoby in beer, cooperative.Tags: BE, beer, co-op, social enterprise
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The frequent sips I take of my favourite beer – Westmalle Tripel – will henceforth taste less sweet. I have been devastated to find out that the brewery has stopped being a co-operative. On 29th December last, it passed a resolution saying because “the object of the company does not correspond to the definition of cooperative company provided by article 6:1 of the Companies and Associations Code” it would adopt new statutes as a BV (private limited company).
Its new statutes provide that the Abbot shall be a director, but are silent (in good Trappist fashion) on who the members are or how many votes they have. However they do still say that “the company can contribute to the development of social economy activities that belong to the monastic economy of the Trappist abbey in Westmalle or can promote them in the broadest sense of the word.”
It has long been a thorn in the side of the Belgian co-operative movement that most enterprises that were technically registered as co-operatives were not so in practice. The reform of the companies and associations law puts an end to ‘false co-operatives’. The new law abolishes CVBAs and renames them simply CVs – coöperatieve vennootschappen – which really must follow the ICA principles. If they can’t make the grade, next January (2024) they will be downgraded to BVs by default. This is all explained here.
[1] Seer also: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/26/belgium-trappist-beers-under-threat
People’s house reborn in Anderlecht 15 December 2022
Posted by cooperatoby in Brussels, cooperative, social economy, Social enterprise.Tags: Brussels, co-op, social enterprise
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On 16 November I went to the inauguration of the Maison du Peuple/Volkshuis Anderlecht, at the invitation of ex-AEIDL board member José Menéndez. The commune has used regional grants to buy and renovate this building, strategically situated by the Kuregem canal bridge. It is thus bringing an important symbol of the Belgian working-class movement back to life. In 1905 the area was green fields, and a country mansion, the Château de Cureghem, was bought and converted to house a café and events space along with the Magasin Centrale, which produced and distributed food. All these functions, along with social housing, are to be recreated. Not only that, but the disused Anderlecht railway station opposite will be reopened. As José said, this part of town can really be considered the “kilometre of solidarity” because of the number of institutions that took root there. Six years ago José also led the conversion of the COOP workspace and cultural centre across the canal.
We were treated to speeches by civic dignitaries, the architect and a long-time inhabitant of the neighbourhood who recalled the building in its heyday. This was followed by a buffet. In the afternoon a conference took pace organised by Cultura Contra Camorra, which operates a food co-op not far from me in St-Gilles, which imports produce from farms confiscated from the Mafia, and is presided by Franco Ianniello, my ex-colleague from the Social Economy Unit of the Commission.
Right now, the building is usable but undecorated. A second phase of renovation now starts. We should be enjoying the results by 2025.
History and plans at: https://bruxellesfabriques.be/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Maison-du-Peuple-Anderlecht.pdf
Germany rediscovers the social economy – 10 years late 14 December 2022
Posted by cooperatoby in EU, social economy, Social enterprise.Tags: DE, EU, social enterprise
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I should have realised that something was brewing when the European Social Economy Summit culminated in Mannheim in April 2021. We couldn’t actually go there of course as this was during the COVID lockdown.
This time, to mark 10 years of Social Economy Europe and one year of the Social Economy Action Plan on 7 December, I could theoretically have gone in person to the European Parliament. But it was booked out, so I had to be content with a video link. I saw SEE’s birthday cake, but I missed the festive glass of wine.
It was an elevating, exciting couple of hours, jam-packed with inspiration and solid evidence of the social economy’s growth and effectiveness. It’s hard to say which of the causes for celebration is the more significant.
Amid the celebrations and exhortations, the big news for me was that Germany has rediscovered the social economy.
A German SEAP
After serving as a Green MEP since 2009, Sven Giegold was appointed State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action last December. Now, as Sven’s colleague Katrin Elsemann announced, Germany is finally getting down to writing a social economy strategy too. Based on the European SEAP, it covers policy and legal frameworks, public procurement, access to finding and impact measurement. More practically, it also includes support infrastructure, links between businesses and associations, and women’s entrepreneurship. At European level two important issues are state aid and cross-border work by associations. The action plan is to be launched next Spring, and (just like EQUAL 2 decades ago) will be funded by ESF+. As an earnest of its intent, Germany will sign the Luxembourg Declaration. It remains to involve the education and economics ministries.
It’s a long overdue change in policy. In 2002, Germany stormed into the EQUAL programme with a very well-structured and strategic programme. Like Britain, it focused resources on a small number of large projects, which built partnerships between public authorities, welfare associations and assorted social innovators. Germany set up a thriving National Thematic Group, which by the mid-point of EQUAL in 2005 was on the point of publishing a comprehensive handbook. But for mysterious reasons the plug was pulled. The focus was turned back to the more anodyne idea ‘inclusive entrepreneurship’. Nevertheless at the final event in June 2027 in Hannover, the social economy presented very strong evidence. The social economy went on to become the third most popular theme in EQUAL, with 17 countries prioritising it. And in 2011 the Social Business Initiative took the struggle a step further. Welcome back!
The future of the planet
The whole event was a miracle of timekeeping managed by Chris Gordon of the Irish Social Enterprise Network, who managed with good humour to compress 16 speeches into his allotted span of 2¾ hours.
Noting that it has taken 10 years of hard work to get to this point, Alain Coheur, President of the EESC’s Single Market, Production and Consumption Section, said we had to keep up the pressure: “It’s about the future of the planet! We have a unique historic opportunity. We are not an epiphenomeon, an accident in capitalism. We have to gather the fruit of our work, not be usurped by consultants. We bring hope!”
Letting loose a scoop, he announced a conference in 2024 in Liège. But before then comes one on 17 November 2023 in Donostia-San Sebastián.
As an envoi, SEE’s Victor Meseguer was finally allowed half a minute in the limelight to exhort us to further collective action. Over to us.
Update 20 Oct 23:
Pioneers’ Post interview on Germany’s new national strategy for social innovation and “companies oriented towards the common good”The social economy cocreation game 1 December 2022
Posted by cooperatoby in EU, social economy, Social enterprise.Tags: EU, social enterprise
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Being at the launch of the Transition Pathway for the Proximity and Social Economy in the ritzy surroundings of the Résidence Palace two weeks ago made me feel my age. It reminded me of the thought I had midway through my life about generations. What we did in the 70s new younger people redo every 15 years or so since – and I should be grateful for that. Good luck to you!
Nevertheless some aspects of the event grated on my aging senses. There was the “game show” atmosphere, with audience participation in the form of yelps of delight – it’s most unBritish. Sedate dignity is out. Long speeches were banished in favour of an “interview” format – and I think I sensed Commissioner Thierry Breton’s slight bemusement. To some of us in the room it felt artificial – but I can imagine that for the greater number of people (300) watching on their screens at home, the speedy format was as unputdownable as television tries to be. But have our attention spans really shrunk so much?
The terms of engagement between the movement and the powers that be have changed radically. We are now invited to take part in a process of “co-creation” – and what does this mean? We have the ideas and the energy and the public authorities have the power and the money. It’s an uneven partnership, as we all recognise. But that doesn’t mean a new “game” can’t emerge which can be productive. In this case, on the one hand the social economy vaunts is achievements. In response, the Commission asks the movement to put its time and money where its mouth is and make “pledges” as to what it is actually going to do about it. So the rhetorical stage is set. Hey presto – pledges did indeed emerge (a nice bit of stage management, this). You can make your own pledge here
What we have is the Commission using its “power of convening” to focus attention on what the social economy can do for the world. Plenty of people want to be part of this, and the Commission has the means and reach to multiply our efforts. Bravo.
Beware dilution
Our Transition Pathway is probably the most dynamic of the 14 under construction. It contains 14 action points – 7 green and 7 digital. The thinking is based on ‘solid business cases’ and collaboration with conventional enterprises, which is recipe for dilution and needs watching. The two most significant are probably:
- local green deals to bring the social economy into partnership on the ground; and
- support for platform co-operatives, which will do a lot for workers’ and citizens’ rights in the gig economy.
But not everything changes: even the 30-year saga of the European associations statute is to be revived!
The Digital Social Economy flexes its muscles 29 October 2020
Posted by cooperatoby in cooperative, EU, social economy, Social enterprise.Tags: co-op, EU, social enterprise
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To open, a digital cooperative joke: “How many cooperators does it take to change a lightbulb? – 11011/1100100”.
I’ve just been really impressed by the workshop on the digital social economy at the second session today of the EU social economy summit (EUSES). Chaired by Luca Pastorelli of DIESIS, the workshop made it an online conference that was definitely worth taking part in.
The key message is that 75% of the world’s digital economy is run from the USA, and only 3% from the EU. The social economy, by building bridges between innovation and local communities, plays a crucial role in Europe’s digital strategy, which aims to deliver technology that works for people, a fair and competitive digital economy, an open, democratic and sustainable digital society, and Europe as a global digital player. To do that, the digital social economy needs to scale up, and this requires investment and ecosystem support.
At the moment, the digital economy does not work for people and is unfair, closed and undemocratic. An acute analysis by Professor Trebor Scholz of the Platform Cooperativism Consortium (PCC) shows that it provides insecure low-paid and risky jobs that leave workers subject to harassment and unable to plan their lives. It fragments the workforce and makes it difficult for them to organise. “Behind every Uber driver on the street are hundreds of invisible workers in care and tech,” he said.
Giuseppe Guerini of CECOP pointed out that the digital economy has created new forms of inequality and exclusion, and that trust has become a scarce social resource. Cooperatives can help rectify this by providing work which offers dignity and a sense of identity.
Leading edge platform cooperatives
Damiano Avellino defined platforms – they don’t own or produce what they sell – they connect people. And in so doing, they extract money from local economies through the commissions they levy. during the pandemic, the owners of major platforms have enriched themselves inordinately. Contrast this with the behaviour of Fairbnb, which donates half of its 15% commission to local community projects. In the Emilia Romagna region of Italy, 1/3 of production is cooperative, and next month sees the launch of a new platform initiative called Coop Valley. Connecting people is what social enterprises are great at doing.
Sven Bartilsson reported that in Sweden, Coompanion is working with the Fairgig and Giglab projects to set up open date platforms which will allow freelancers to keep control of their own reputations. It is difficult to challenge monopolistic incumbents, and new cooperative platforms need capital if they are to survive the ‘valley of death’ as they build up a critical mass of users. He hopes to set up a €10m investment fund for digital cooperatives (Fairfond).
Timo Berg of Germany’s largest freelance cooperative, 4freelance Recruitment offers its 700 members a low (10%) commission, transparency through an open books policy, fair contracts with no ‘handcuffs’, control over their CVs, and benefits like cheap liability insurance.
It may look like Goliath has won the day, but the social economy has distinct strengths. David is starting to flex his muscles.
Presentations are to be posted on the DIESIS and EUSES websites.
To read:
Regions take an interest in the social economy 15 September 2020
Posted by cooperatoby in EU, social economy, Social enterprise.Tags: EU, social enterprise
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The SEDEC commission of the EU Committee of Regions has published a report I cowrote with Haris Martinos for METIS earlier this year. It’s great to see that local and regional authorities (LRAs) are looking on more detail at how they can support the social economy.
Nomenclature
Entitled The impact of social economy at the local and regional level, the 50-page report first of all clarifies in some detail what the difference between the social economy and social enterprise is. While many social economy organisations are not businesses, and some social enterprises are not democratic, there are plenty that are both. These are ‘social economy enterprises’, and are shown at the intersection between CMAFs and social enterprises in this diagram:
Fewer than half of EU countries have a firm legal definition of the social economy
One factor that holds back the growth of social economy enterprises is an inadequate legal framework. This is largely a national responsibility, although in countries like Spain the regions can also legislate for themselves in this area. The study draws on the 2020 EU mapping study prepared by Euricse and EMES and its country reports to clarify where the best legal frameworks in Europe are.
It finds that only 12 countries have created broad legal frameworks for the social economy as a whole, of which 6 (BE, FR, EL, ES, IT and PT) are systematic, and a further 6 (or since Brexit now 5) have ad hoc systems, patchworks of laws which nevertheless permit the social economy to flourish (these are DK, FI, PL, SI, SK and UK).
A larger number of countries, 18, have legally binding legal definitions of social enterprise. While 13 of these (BE, BG, DK, FR, EL, ES, IT, LV, PT, RO, SI, SK, UK) allow for all types of social enterprise, 5 (CZ, FI, HR, LT, PL) have only defined work integration social enterprises (WISEs). This is understandable given that inclusive employment is so important, but it a missed opportunity.
Social economy enterprises in countries such as DE, NL and SE might flourish much better if the legal systems were updated.
The best support strategies work through partnership
“LRAs can play a decisive role in scaling up the social economy in their territory, and this can be done in a number of ways, the report says. It set out the best sort of support regions and localities can give, stressing that the best strategies to establish a supportive ecosystem are firmly based on partnership with the sector’s federal organisations. The ecosystem needs to include not only political acknowledgement but access to markets, support for business development, mutual support networks, access to finance, and research, education & skills development.
A score of examples of successful support mechanisms cover issues such as strategies and pacts, social services of general interest, socially responsible public procurement, start-up grants, incubators and social economy schools.
The 12 countries where local and regional authorities have the best track record in supporting social enterprises are AT, BE, CZ, DE, FR, ES, IE, IT, LU, NL, PT and SE. Let us hope that regions and localities throughout Europe pick up this baton and run with it.
Download the report at: https://cor.europa.eu/en/engage/studies/Documents/Impact-of-social-economy.pdf
Toby at tipp(l)ing point 