Loomio
Mon 20 Jan 2020 9:26AM

Scoping the current practice of dynamic governance in co-operatives

MSC Mark Simmonds (Co-op Culture) Public Seen by 59

I'm currently putting together a proposal (invited to do so) to the UK Co-operative Governance Expert Reference Panel (of which I am a member) around their focus for the next couple of years. I'm proposing that we look at the emerging popularity of dynamic governance (sociocracy for example) in co-operatives and particularly co-operatives that may never physically meet. I'm thinking that the emerging practice in platform co-ops will be particularly interesting, but with application for more traditional large co-operatives.

I'm interested in your opinion of the questions we should be addressing. I include below my initial thoughts around this and you can see an earlier thought piece here.

The questions I've come up with so so far:

  • What is dynamic governance (what are we including?)?

  • Which co-ops are using dynamic governance?

  • What are the differences between the different models/instances?

  • What are the benefits?

  • What are the downsides?

  • How well do current resources around good co-op governance apply to this practice?

IS

Ian Snaith Mon 20 Jan 2020 1:06PM

A quick google search suggests it is another word for Sociocracy but i hadn't heard of the variations mentioned above.

PB

Pete Burden Mon 20 Jan 2020 1:52PM

I believe it was Betty Cadbury (of the Cadbury's family) and Kees Boeke who first put the ideas into practice in their school in the Netherlands. So a definite yes to the Quaker Business Method and Quaker roots.

MSC

Mark Simmonds (Co-op Culture) Tue 21 Jan 2020 8:15PM

It's partly political @Sion Whellens (Principle Six/Calverts) to include co-ops that wouldn't necessarily identify as sociocratic - casting the net a bit wider really