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Cooperation, Community, and Co-ops in a Global Era
Carl Ratner
Human history is largely the story of communities, punctuated by examples of cooperatives--in fact, our level of cooperative behavior is one of the attributes that makes us most human. In recent years, however, concepts such as rugged individualism and social Darwinism have competed against cooperative ideas for supremacy, and today's climate of global economic crisis has found these "me-first" concepts wanting.
Now, an important new book posits that current political solutions to acute world problems are inadequate, and that modern society needs to look to its communal roots for recovery--and perhaps survival. Cooperation, Community, and Co-ops in a Global Era argues for a societal paradigm shift and details how such a transformation might be accomplished. Taking the evolutionary long view, its author demonstrates how cooperative principles can make a social system not just more efficient and less wasteful of time and resources, but also more democratic, empowering, and fulfilling for everyone involved. In making this compelling case, he:
Explains how humans are hard-wired for cooperation, and identifies its psychological competencies.Contrasts aspects of cooperative enterprises before and after the Industrial Revolution.Provides illustrative examples from European cooperative institutions.Analyzes modern social paradoxes such as cooperative individuality.Examines the strengths and shortcomings of the modern international cooperative movement.Explicates a cooperative social philosophy: its structures, behaviors, and values.Social and cultural psychologists as well as sociologists will find Cooperation, Community, and Co-ops in a Global Era worth reading, discussing, and debating.
List of contents
Introduction To The Praxis of Cooperative Behavior.- General Aspects of Cooperation That Potentiate But Do Not Determine Concrete Cooperation.- The Dialectical Relation between Cooperation and Capitalism: Cooperation Before, During, and After The Advent of Capitalism.- Historical Roots Of Contemporary Cooperatives.- Cooperatives' March To Modernity: Market-oriented, Apolitical Cooperation.- Cooperation in Practice: Successes and Shortcomings of The International Cooperative Movement Today.- Explaining Co-op Weaknesses In Terms of The Dominant Cooperative Paradigm.- An Enriched, Viable, Necessary Cooperative Paradigm for Our Era.
About the author
Dr. Ratner is a renowned cultural experience who has made original contributions to the field of cultural psychology. He has published 6 books in the field (three by Springer) along with numerous articles. He has travelled extensively internationally, having lived in China for two years, and 5 months in India at the prestigious Nehru University in New Delhi.
Summary
Globalization pressures have made cooperation on a global scale both necessary and possible. But cooperation is not easy in a world dominated by individual, cultural, and national selfish interests. The opposition to cooperation means that cooperation is not natural, but must be instituted through an intellectual and social struggle against countervailing forces. This book discusses issues that are necessary to describe the nature of cooperation and how it can be promoted as a social and ethical ideal amidst a sea of competing interests. Dr. Ratner uses the framework of cooperativism, that is the system of social institutions, social philosophy, cultural psychology and politics that promotes cooperation, as a starting point. Elements of cooperativism are derived from a rigorous analysis of various sources, including the needs of tendencies of human culture and human psychology.
Additional text
From the reviews:
“Ratner (Institute for Cultural Research and Education) proposes that the solutions to the world problems lie within the communal roots of cooperative behaviors. He argues for a social paradigm shift, positioning cooperation as a broad praxis rooted in various social sciences. … Ratner’s book is educational and stimulating. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.” (I. I. Katzarska-Miller, Choice, Vol. 50 (9), May, 2013)
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From the reviews:
"Ratner (Institute for Cultural Research and Education) proposes that the solutions to the world problems lie within the communal roots of cooperative behaviors. He argues for a social paradigm shift, positioning cooperation as a broad praxis rooted in various social sciences. ... Ratner's book is educational and stimulating. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals." (I. I. Katzarska-Miller, Choice, Vol. 50 (9), May, 2013)
