The Cooperative Enterprise at the Colloquium in Business History

A special kind of business such as the cooperative enterprise is the topic of the International Colloquium in Business History at Bocconi University (October, 14-16), the initiative that, for the fifteenth year in a row, gathers at Bocconi business history scholars from all around the world. The Colloquium is organized by Bocconi's Economic History Institute (part of the Department of Institutional Analysis and Public Management); ASSI (the Italian Association of Business History); and Hopkins' Institute Institute for Applied Economics and the Study of Business Enterprise. This year the Colloquium can boast of the support of Fondazione Ivano Barberini, a foundation dedicated to one of the most important leaders of the Italian cooperative movement.

"The cooperative enterprise is a modern business, always striking a balance between market and social values; but it's an endangered kind of business, threatened by the spreading temptation to move back to the simple, deregulated market", Franco Amatori, full professor of business history and organizer of the Colloquium, says. "Democracy, solidarity and environment are some of the modern values shared by the cooperative movement".

The Colloquium, titled A Special Kind of Business: The Cooperative Movement 1950-2010... and Beyond, consists of a scientific conference (October 14-15), in which will be discussed 11 papers in order to see the cooperative enterpises within an international historical comparison, and a public panel discussion about Which Future for the Cooperative Movement? (October 16, 10 a.m., Room N02 Velodromo Bocconi) with Elio Borgonovi (Bocconi), Carlo Borzaga (Università di Trento), Hagen Henry (International Labour Organisation), Giuliano Poletti (Lega Nazionale delle Cooperative) e Adrian Zelaia (Ekai Center).