12 May 2014
Bilbao Campus
The prevailing individualism, the disappearance of social ties, and the weakening of traditional values (religion, neighbour relations, trade union movement, etc.) have gone against the collective identity, which nurtures the spirit of cooperatives, comprising more than 500 million people, thus being the world’s largest socioeconomic movement.
In an opinion article published in El País on Sunday, 11 May, Javier Divar and Enrique Gadea, Professor and Lecturer, respectively, in Commercial Law at the University of Deusto, they said that cooperative ideas can help to set the guidelines to lead a more satisfying and fuller lifestyle.
According to Divar and Gadea, “Many thinkers, from different disciplines, argue that economic participation (basically by a company’s workforce) creates a true democratic society. This places workers’ participation not at a level of mere labour demand but within the framework of social justice”.
They also pointed out that an exhaustive analysis shows that “the values of the cooperative system (among them, the existence of a genuine participatory democracy) are effective to achieve not only economic goals but also other personal goals such as self-esteem, self-fulfilment or even find a meaning to life".
