Chapter 4 - “. . . What Is the End Purpose of It All?”: The Centrality of Values for Cooperative Success in the Marketplace

Summary

This chapter examines the way in which the international organized cooperative movement tried during the 1990s to make the connection between values and principles. The last revision of the principles, in the 1990s, differed from the earlier approaches because the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) tried to situate the principles within the context of basic values. The origins of this effort can be traced back to 1978, when delegates to the ICA's Copenhagen Congress wondered if their movement was speaking effectively to modern circumstances. The sources for the cooperative values are very complex, derived from history, many community situations, cultural understandings, bodies of thought, and economic circumstances. The initial work of the 1990s demonstrated that there are commonalities in the values accepted throughout the international movement. Values emerge from reflections about lived experiences, and people and groups with similar convictions can naturally develop different degrees of emphasis on what they believe.