While the world is faced with a series of ecological challenges, co-ops can empower people to develop new economies, for a better, more inclusive, and environmentally friendly future. This view was put forward by economist Jeremy Rifkin, one of the keynote speakers at the International Summit of Cooperatives in Quebec.
Prof Rifkin has written over 20 books about the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, society and environment. He described how a new economic model was needed for the world to deal with the growing environmental crisis. Co-operatives have the opportunity to drive change, particularly in areas such as energy and digital technology, he argued.
Prof Rifkin thinks digital co-ops will spread across different sectors, particularly because the new sharing economy resonates with the seven co-operative principles. He believes the development of an economy based on the sharing of goods, spaces and tools will reduce the margin cost of production.
The academic has advised the European Parliament, the European Commission and various heads of state. One particular area of focus in his work has been renewable energy.
“Co-ops will be the energy producers in the 21st century in Europe. This is a very fortunate moment in time. Co-ops will be the idea venue to scale this new digital revolution. You have one billion people and also banking co-ops, agricultural, manufacturing co-ops.
“This technology has a dark time, we need to build resilience into the system,” he said, and urged co-ops to use their .coop domain and create their own algorithms and apps to make the most of members’ data in an ethical way.
“You go from seller-buyer to provider-user on low margins,” he said, pointing to a sharing economy with three billion young people active online, producing and sharing music, books and videos.
“You have all industries, people and the appropriate form – democratic, open, distributive, transparent, to distribute that,” he told delegates. “Why can’t co-ops say to the one billion members, ‘Why don’t we set up a Facebook or establish a Google; why aren’t we on Twitter or developing platforms in transport?’,” he concluded.
