More than a hundred researchers and practitioners met at the ICA CCR Research Conference in Helsinki on the 12th to 13th of June in 2025. Together with other colleagues, members of the Institute moderated and presented their research in two research tracks.
In the track on Large Incumbents versus Small New Cooperatives, Jos Bijman, Markus Hanisch and Katrin Martens explored how this gap might be bridged, harness the strengths of both worlds, and rediscover a shared language. They first presented a typology to improve research on agricultural cooperatives. Then Daniel Petrovics shared impressive work on how to measure cooperative impact across different scales that he developed together with Taneli Vaskelainen and Thomas Bauwens. Finally, Jos Bijman presented findings from Alain Gatunange’s and his scoping review on what makes new cooperatives succeed.
In the track on Cooperative Education, Jos Bijman and Markus Hanisch moderated an interesting discussion on how education on cooperatives can (in dedicated courses and/or in other courses and study programs) be strengthened and how cooperative educators can support and learn from each other. Ivan Boevsky and Krassimir Kostenarov presented some challenges and opportunities for cooperative education in Bulgaria. Bridget Carroll presented the Certificate in Co-operative Governance and Professional Development in Ireland. Luis Armando Trejo presented the educational strategy of the cooperative ACAVEN de R.L in El Salvador. Sigurd Rysstad and Eystein Ystad presented the strategy and content of courses for elected and employed leaders in agricultural cooperatives in Norway. On more conceptual basis, Pekka Hytinkoski explored different educational philosophies and critical pedagogy.
Moreover, two papers originally conceived and written for the Master Course on Cooperation and Cooperatives at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin were presented. Delia Scheel and Benedikt Hoppe introduced their systematic literature review on the determinants of trust in agricultural cooperatives and Berkay Üstün presented the case of İzmir Cooperative focusing on local resistance to neoliberal agriculture.
After two intensive days of discussion and exchange on co-operative identity, Maryline Fillipi’s words on the surviving utopia as neither pure nor lost but transformed are still resonating and will probably guide future research and education on cooperatives.
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