Open seminar talk: Arjan van Dorsselaer (UU)

In our open seminar, Arjan van Dorsselaer presented his paper ‘Developing Social Entrepreneurial Ecosystems by Scaling through Community Capitals: a Systematic Literature Review’. Arjan, who is a doctoral researcher at the Utrecht University School of Economics and School of Governance, utilizes the Community Capital Framework to explore the role of communities in the ecosystems around social enterprises. By employing the community lens, he wants to learn more about the scaling strategies of social entrepreneurs to gain more societal impact. During a lively discussion, the attendees shared their insights on the topic.

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Professor Tine De Moor will give annual Rotterdam lecture

On May 13, professor Tine De Moor from the Rotterdam School of Management will give this year’s Rotterdamlezing. This is the annual gift to the city, on behalf of the Erasmus University Rotterdam and Erasmus Trust Fund. The lecture is titled: ‘How value becomes resilient. Building the community economy in Rotterdam‘.


The lecture will be given in Dutch. The lecture takes place in Debate Podium Arminius, Rotterdam, from 7.30pm until 10:00pm. Entrance is free, but reservation required.

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PhD Defence Damion Bunders about resilience of platform cooperatives

On March 15, Damion Bunders successfully defended his PhD thesis titled: ‘Gigs of their Own: Can platform cooperatives become resilient?‘ The dissertation is about platform cooperatives as an alternative form of organisation where gig workers own and manage a digital platform collectively. It includes an analysis of the challenges these cooperatives face to better understand the conditions under which they could become resilient organisations.

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Book about consumer cooperatives presented

On 8 March, drs. Pieter Steenbergen presented his book ‘Van ons, voor ons’ (By us, for us. Subtitle: 150 years of resilience of consumer cooperative Coop). The book presentation marks the end of a research project at the SEICA research group to the history of consumer cooperatives in the Netherlands. It also heralds the disappearance of the name Coop from the Dutch cityscapes, because of the merger between the Plus and Coop supermarkets into the new cooperative Plus U.A.

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Leibniz University Hannover invites Tine De Moor for lecture series ‘Between Eden and the Fall’

On April 23, Professor Tine De Moor from the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) gives  a lecture titled: ‘The commons as a form of institution for collective action, in longitudinal perspective‘. This seminar is part of Leibniz University Hannover’s summer semester lecture series ‘Between Eden and the Fall: Common Land in Early Modern and Modern Western Europe’.

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Open Seminar Talk: Enrique Santamaría (EUR)

On February 27, 2024 as part of our Open Seminar Series, dr. Enrique Santamaría Echeverría from the Erasmus School of Law gave a presentation titled ‘Our common body? Biological Materials, Data and Knowledge Commons for Research & Development.’ He discussed, amongst others, different theories on the (human body) commons, the legal architecture, the imbalance between provider and recipient, commodification, and (health) data altruism. The presentation led to a lively discussion where participants shared additional insights.

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Publication on motives for cooperative energy prosumerism

Members of energy cooperatives take on the role of prosumers: both consumer and producer by setting up and joining these cooperatives as investors, shareholders and clients. To work towards becoming a resilient institution, it is important that cooperatives preserve their support base by understanding the motives of their members.

The Energy, Sustainability and Society Journal published a study on this topic titled ‘Ecological, financial, social and societal motives for cooperative energy prosumerism: measuring preference heterogeneity in a Belgian energy cooperative‘. The authors, Fijnanda van Klingeren and Tine De Moor from Erasmus University, investigate the preference heterogeneity and motivations of members of a large energy cooperative in Belgium. It uses stated-choice data from a Discrete Choice Experiment in combination with self-reported membership motives.

It turns out that ecological motives seem to be most important for members of this energy cooperative. The article concludes by raising awareness with cooperatives that their legal form may not be the only factor that drives membership. Rather, keeping high levels of renewable energy, competitive pricing and being an interesting investment opportunity may be key to cooperatives’ resilience and further development on the energy market.’