The Cooperative Idea – A Cultural Heritage of Humanity

^{New publication by Zeit-Fragen publishing house}

In November 2016, the “cooperative idea” was declared part of the Intangible Cultural World Heritage of UNESCO. With the adoption the idea is to be protected and at the same time to be brought more strongly into the consciousness again as economic model. The impulse to declare the cooperative idea a World Heritage came in 2014 from­Dietmar Berger, the long-time president of the Middle German Cooperative Association. The Raiffeisen Association and the Schulze-Delitzsch- Society joined this idea and jointly submitted the application to the UNESCO.
In order to honour the recognition of the cooperative idea as a World Cultural Heritage, the cooperative Zeit-Fragen organised two events as part of the Leipzig Book Fair 2017.
Participants in the panel discussions included Dietmar Berger, long-standing president of the Middle German Cooperative Association, Professor Dr Markus Hanisch, holder of the Raiffeisen professorship at the Humboldt University in Berlin (“Economics of Rural Cooperatives”), Professor Dr Richard Werner, Director of the Center for Banking, Finance and Sustainable Development, and Dr Eva-Maria Föllmer-Müller, editor and psychologist of the Current Concerns newspaper and Jean-Paul Vuilleumier, president of the Zeit-Fragen Cooperative.
The anthropologically founded ethical basics of the cooperative idea are still relevant today and should be preserved and further developed for future generations. The UN had already proclaimed in 2012 the “Year of Cooperatives” and thus honoured the cooperatives with their 800 million members in over 100 countries worldwide. Cooperatives are working to reduce poverty, create jobs and promote social inclusion. Reason enough to discuss the cooperatives, their historical, social-ethical, economic and practical basics. (Foreword to the brochure)

The 70-page brochure [in German] can be ordered from the Genossenschaft Zeit-Fragen, Postfach, CH-8044 Zurich; e-mail: <link>abo@zeit-fragen.ch,
for CHF 10.- plus postage.