Co-operative thought and action, by their nature, have been linked to efforts by human beings since the dawn of time to benefit from collaboration, to reach across barriers and competition, and to avoid war. Since the establishment of the formal international co-operative movement in the nineteenth century, co-operative organizations and co-operators have sought, with varying degrees of success, to foster peace among peoples around the globe. The International Co-operative Alliance has formally recognized and encouraged the roles that co-operatives can play in ensuring more peaceful relations at local, national and international levels, but there has been limited research undertaken to understand how effective co-operatives have been or could be in achieving such goals. Dr. Yehudah Paz, Chairperson, Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development and member of the board of the International Co-operative Alliance and BCICS’ Director, Ian MacPherson, are combining efforts to gather information and support in order to better understand the role of cooperatives in the pursuit of peace.

Researchers interested in the relationship between peace, co-operative thought, co-operatives and co-operators, past, present and future, are invited to submit proposals for papers on the theme “Co-operatives and the Pursuit of Peace”. Proposals will be considered for a series of related events to be held in June 2006: a workshop in Victoria for authors of a collection of essays on the above theme (June19-20); an interdisciplinary conference on war and peace with a strong historical, theoretical, and policy making orientation entitled Cities, Communities and Peace: Co-operation and Conflict Resolution, to be held at the University of Victoria (21-23 June); the World Peace Forum in Vancouver (23-28 June); and the International Peace Research Forum to be held in Calgary (tentatively, 29-30 June). Papers that examine the roles of the co-operative movement at the international, regional and national level in achieving peaceful relations within and among nations as well as within communities are welcome, as are papers that explore the experiences of individual co-operators. The outcome of this effort will be a publication on the theme of co-operatives and peace. Contact peaceco@uvic.ca.

Ian MacPherson