The good news has been rolling in for Cooperative Economics, of late. Just last week, Routledge expressed interest and support in a new Handbook of Cooperative Economics. Now, our application for approval of a new Master’s and PhD program in sustainability and cooperation has been approved! This is wonderful news and means that, soon, we will together begin to build two exciting new programs. Firstly, an international Master’s in sustainability and cooperation focusing on areas like cooperative economics and management, management of cooperation in business, directed towards practically oriented students, managers of cooperative businesses, or of traditional businesses looking to orient their enterprise more towards a cooperative, relational approach to dealing with issues of sustainability in their firms.
The second will be a PhD program directed towards scholars interested in researching at the intersection of cooperation and sustainability. Here, we aim to offer young researchers connections to exciting and innovative research opportunities in important and timely fields, ranging from management to economics and ethics, on topics that typically fall by the wayside in more standard PhD programs. These young researchers will be guided and motivated by a highly engaged and competent network of international scholars and practitioners.
Both programs will be located in Italy, likely in a former monastery in the pristine and beautiful resort town of Caramanico Terme, in the Abruzzo mountains near Pescara, and directed to an international audience. There are already a few programs on cooperative management located in Italy today (e.g., in Bologna). These are, to date, however, all geared towards Italians and are in Italian. Our program would add an exciting dimension by opening this world to international stakeholders excited about the intersection of cooperation, the cooperative economy and sustainability and wishing to connect to the practical experiences of the strongest cooperative sector in the world.
It will be our aim to therefore connect the fascinating and resilient world of Italian cooperatives with international scholars and practitioners. Beginning from this solid foundation, we want to reach across national boundaries and connect the program with international cooperative movements (e.g., Spanish, Canadian, Brazilian, Indian, etc., etc.), bringing experts, scholars and practitioners together in synergistic and mutually beneficial research projects in a wide array of fields, including economics, management, but also technology, ecology, law, psychology, ethics and related fields.
This journey is just beginning, but we are convinced that with progress towards the Routledge Handbook of Cooperative Economics, a conference in Rome this summer on “Cooperation and Sustainability” and the creation of these two overlapping and mutually reinforcing academic programs, there is a bright future ahead for cooperative economics and for the cooperative economy!
Cooperative Economics & Management 
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