16 Jan 2012
A New World View
The United Nations has declared 2012 the Year of the Cooperatives. In light of this, Second Sight has organized a series of interviews together with the Rabobank. In our previous issue we interviewed Wilbert van den Bosch for the directorate cooperative and sustainability Rabobank.
Now, in part two, we have an interview with the former chairman of the Socio-Economic Council, Herman Wijffels, ambassador for the cooperative organization structure.
In this interview we shall explore the why of the cooperative organization structure. Why do people feel the need for cooperatives again now? All around us we see a new world emerging in which some old structures no longer work and new principles need to be adopted.
‘The rise of the topicality of cooperative relationships and new working relationships in general, has everything to do with the current stage in social development.’ That is how Herman Wijffels categorizes the current situation and the Year of the Cooperation. ‘The methods which we employed in the industrial age, brought successes.’ He mentions that explicitly. ‘Prosperity has multiplied, the world’s population has risen from one to seven billion and the developments in education and knowledge have led to a high degree of emancipation, we have a higher consciousness of the individuality than ever before.
Self organisation
These three new facts, together, now very clearly lead to the necessity to organize ourselves differently. With so many people on our planet and so much production and consumption – for that is what prosperity translates into – and so many people who are now capable of doing creative things themselves, we must……
This is an article published in Second Sight Magazine #28 ‘2012 and beyond’. To continue reading, register now or purchase a single copy PDF (€ 15,-, ex VAT) or in print for € 25,- (ex VAT , ex porto).
Become a paid subscriber for full uninterrupted access. Already an online or premium subscriber? Sign in.
Reacties