SPECIAL SESSION Youth and cooperativism: Challenges and proposals. Topic 21, Stage 1, Macro

Alejandro Martínez Charterina;Enrique Gadea Soler;Vega María Arnáez Arce;Alberto Atxabal Rada;Francisco Javier Arrieta Idiakez. The topic of youth is permanently in the spotlight and under constant consideration from... [ view full abstract ]

Alejandro Martínez Charterina;Enrique Gadea Soler;Vega María Arnáez Arce;Alberto Atxabal Rada;Francisco Javier Arrieta Idiakez.
The topic of youth is permanently in the spotlight and under constant consideration from different perspectives. Youth have become both an attractive target for political action and a highly coveted consumer market. The lengthening of formal education and delayed entry into job markets have broadened the duration, scope and number of youth, hence the enhanced attention.
Youth continues to be identified as a synonym of change and crisis. It is not a final stage, but a path to the middle stage of maturity and to future adulthood. This view enhances the relevance of attracting youth, mainly through education and culture, to ensure the future of any political project.
Cooperation as a deep human tendency and cooperativism as the doctrine that organises it rationally for economic and social performance, have an intrinsic expansive nature, not limited to a specific group. This power of expansion necessarily looks to the future to ensure its permanence: the point at which cooperativism and youth converge. Cooperativism,as the the driving force of social and economic change in pursuit of a mature society that overcomes its shortcomings, coincides with youth in its tendency towards the fullness involved in maturity.
Teaching cooperation not only draws on theoretical and scholarly teachings but it calls for practical action to shape attitudes and behaviours. Youth’s effective participation should be enabled considering, as Charles Gide pointed out, that cooperation involves a lifelong learning process.
Cooperatives should regard youth as their present and future. The Statement on Cooperative Identity adopted by the International Cooperative Alliance at its 1995 Manchester Conference, highlighted young people as individuals to whom cooperatives should inform and convey the nature, benefits and advantages of cooperation in the context of its 5th principle on education, training and information.
Worldwide accelerated changes pose concerns about the effects on youth, their lifestyles, values and capacity for commitment. However, we have a well-prepared generation, with social, mobility and technological capabilities: a youth that is worthy of the attention of cooperativism and can provide continuity, insight and greater visibility.
This session has a common thread: the dissemination of cooperative values and principles among young people. The authors are members of the international research group of the International Association of Cooperative Law, and will bring to bear their extensive experience on this key aspect for the development of the Cooperative Movement.