Participants will engage in a discussion about cooperative identity in practice; its implications for the cooperative business model, and contributions to new economic paradigms such as the circular economy, SDGs, and economy for the common good. A cooperative perspective on sustainability will be deliberated in small discussion groups.

Trainer: Sonja Novkovic

Sonja Novkovic is a Professor of Economics and Academic director of the International Centre for Co-operative Management at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Canada. She is Chair of the International Co-operative Alliance Research Committee, and a member of the NCBA Council of Economists. Her research interests are in the field of economic democracy, including labor-managed and cooperative firms. Comparative systems and social economy research lead to her contributions to research on sustainability and performance indicators from the cooperative perspective. She is a collaborator on a four year research project on co-operative governance funded by FWO - Belgium. Her co-edited volumes include Co-operatives and the World of Work (Routledge, 2019); Cooperativism and Local Development in Cuba: An agenda for Democratic Transformation (Brill, 2018); and Co-operative Governance Fit to Build Resilience in the Face of Complexity (ICA, Brussels 2015).