ICA launches cooperative cultural heritage webinar series with 200 participants

A global webinar on 30 October brought together 200 people to explore how cooperatives sustain living heritage and transmit the culture of cooperation across generations.

The International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), through its partnership with the European Union, and with the support of OCB, -ICA Ambassadors for Cooperative Cultural Heritage for Peace-, organised “Cooperation that Echoes through Time: Cooperatives in the International Decade of Culture for Sustainable Development”, under the leadership of the ICA Working Group on Cooperative Cultural Heritage. The webinar marked the International Day of Intangible Cultural Heritage, observed on 17 October.

The event marked the beginning of a series of activities that will connect cooperative experiences across regions and help shape the movement’s contribution to the International Decade of Culture for Sustainable Development, 2027–2036.

At its heart was the relationship between cooperation and living culture. Cooperative heritage encompasses more than historic buildings, collections and places: it also lives in the knowledge, skills, traditions and everyday practices through which people organise shared interests and meet their communities’ needs. Safeguarding this heritage means creating opportunities for younger generations to practise, adapt and carry it forward.

The programme brought together perspectives from the cooperative movement, cultural institutions, academia and international organisations. Tiago Schmidt, Chairperson of the ICA Working Group on Cooperative Cultural Heritage, and Lutz Möller, Deputy Secretary-General of the German Commission for UNESCO, were joined by contributors exploring the connections between cultural continuity, community participation and cooperative enterprise.

A session on living heritage, moderated by Helena Gorroño, Vice President for Europe at the ICA Youth Committee, featured contributions covering the Haenyeo culture of Jeju in the Republic of Korea, social and solidarity economy perspectives, cooperative journalism, and the preservation of historical collections. Contributors included Prof. Jieun Kiaer (University of Oxford), Prof. Colombia Pérez Muñoz (INDESCO), Miles Hadfield (Co-op News), Maissan Hassan (IISH) and Waltteri Katajamaki (ILO).

The programme also featured Erbin Crowell (NFCA/dotCoop), who spoke about the culture of cooperation in the United States; a presentation by Ritika Khanna introducing the Knowledge and Information Brief on Intangible Cultural Heritage and Cooperatives; reflections from Prof. Harekrishna Misra (ICA AP Research Committee) on cooperative heritage in research and development; and closing remarks from ICA Board member Osamu Nakano, who emphasised peace as a central aim of the CCH programme.

These contributions raised an important question for the cooperative movement: how can recognition of heritage translate into practical support for the people who sustain it? Cooperatives offer a distinctive approach by connecting cultural practices with livelihoods, democratic ownership and shared responsibility. They can help communities retain control over their knowledge and work while creating opportunities for cultural transmission.

With 200 participants joining the opening event, the new webinar series provides a platform for continued exchange and collaboration. It will build connections among cooperatives, heritage practitioners, young people, researchers and institutional partners, positioning the culture of cooperation as an active contribution to sustainable development.

Explore the ICA Cooperative Cultural Heritage programme at culturalheritage.coop.

This initiative is part of the ICA-EU Partnership (2024-2028), also known as #coops4dev🌍, a five-year international cooperative development programme that aims to strengthen the ICA network and position cooperatives as key development actors within the European Union Development Agenda.