Social Enterprises and Institutions for Collective Action

SEICA Open Seminar Talk: Enrique Santamaría
2024-02-27 11:00 - 12:00 (Europe/Paris)
Join us for the next Open Seminar Talk with Dr. Enrique Santamaría Echeverría. He is a researcher at Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University and is an affiliate researcher of SEICA. His research focuses on the relations between the human body and the law. During this session Dr. Enrique Santamaría will give a presentation with the provisional title: “Governance of health data and biological materials for research and development: the case of data cooperatives”.

This seminar is online. If you would like to attend, please send an e-mail to collective-action@rsm.nl and you will receive a Teams-invite shortly.

Application deadline - Part-time PhD programme
2024-03-15 00:00 - 23:59
Are you a business professional who wants to develop their academic skills? With our new part-time PhD programme, you can take part in academic study and research while maintaining your job.

Especially if you are a professional working for or with social enterprises, cooperatives, citizen collectives, or alternative governance regimes such as commons, we encourage you to apply for this six year programme. Afterwards you will receive a PhD degree from Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.

Apply before March 15! Find more information here: https://www.rsm.nl/faculty-research/part-time-phd-programme

PhD defence - Gigs of their Own: Can platform cooperatives become resilient?
2024-03-15 10:30 - 12:00
You are warmly invited to the PhD defence of Damion Bunders on 15 March 2024 at 10:30 in the Senaatszaal of Erasmus University Rotterdam. 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.

Please fill in the following form if you are attending the PhD defence (and reception afterwards at 12.00).

Register

You can also join the live stream.

Brief summary of the doctoral thesisThe gig economy, where mostly self-employed workers perform short-term service jobs intermediated by digital platforms, is often portrayed as offering a glimpse at the future of work. Platform cooperatives that are owned and controlled by gig workers themselves have emerged as an alternative form of organisation to the currently dominant investor-owned platforms. The appeal of platform cooperatives as an alternative is to provide more secure working conditions and democratic control over the platform. In his PhD project, Damion Bunders investigates the challenges that gig workers face when organising themselves in a cooperative enterprise. In particular, he provides insight into the initial feasibility and more long-term challenges of platform cooperatives as one institutional approach to organise work differently in the gig economy by analysing the conditions under which cooperatives of gig workers can become resilient. The project addresses questions on enterprise formation, member commitment, democratic governance, and coordination of collective resources. Damion takes a multi-disciplinary and multi-method approach, combining theory from sociology and institutional economics with interview, survey, and text analysis research. Just as economists have long wondered why firms are usually controlled by capital suppliers instead of by labour suppliers, this dissertation addresses the puzzle of why platforms are not more commonly owned and governed by workers.

AddressSenaatszaal, Erasmus BuildingBurg. Oudlaan 50, 3062 PA, Rotterdam

SEICA Open Seminar Talk: Arjan van Dorsselaer
2024-03-26 11:00 - 12:00
Join us for a seminar with Arjan van Dorsselaer, a PhD Candidate from Utrecht University. He studies the drivers of social entrepreneurial ecosystems and how these influence the various scaling strategies employed by social enterprises. He will present a paper titled: “From Theory to Scaling Strategy: The Role of Community Capital in Social Entrepreneurial Ecosystems“.

This seminar is online. If you would like to attend, please send an e-mail to collective-action@rsm.nl and you will receive a Teams-invite shortly.

Seminar Tine De Moor for the Amsterdam Business School
2024-03-28 11:30 - 13:00
On March 28, Professor Tine De Moor from the Rotterdam School of Management (EUR) gives a seminar at the Amsterdam Business School (UvA), titled: ‘Contagious Institutions? A longitudinal study of institutional spill-over effects of European guilds and other forms of institutions for collective action.‘

Read the abstract here

Lecture Tine De Moor for series ‘Between Eden and the Fall' - Leibniz University Hannover
2024-04-23 18:00 - 20:00
Professor Tine De Moor from the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) will give 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’.

SEICA Open Seminar Talk: Axel Frejman
2024-04-30 11:00 - 12:00
Join us for a SEICA seminar with dr. Axel Frejman, a researcher in Classical Archaeology at Uppsala University. His research has to a large degree revolved around Greek sanctuaries in both modern-day Greece and Turkey. Special research interests include commons and shared resources. During this seminar, he will give a presentation titled: “Commons in Ancient Greece“.

This seminar is online. If you would like to attend, please send an e-mail to collective-action@rsm.nl and you will receive a Teams-invite shortly.

Rotterdamlezing by professor Tine De Moor
2024-05-13 19:00 - 21:30
Professor Tine De Moor from the Rotterdam School of Management will give this year’s Rotterdam Lecture. 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‘ and will be held in Dutch. Find more information here

Application deadline - PhD in Sustainability and Management
2024-05-15 00:00 - 23:59
Do you want to do research on how organisations can be key drivers of social change and sustainable development? Are you, for example, interested in institutions for collective action and alternative organisational and governance forms? Then apply for a fully funded PhD position in Sustainability and Management with our department Business-Society Management (B-SM), Erasmus University.The application deadline is 15 May

Session about the community economy (in Dutch) by Th. Bauwens
2024-05-16 19:00 - 20:30
Session ‘Oplossingen voor de toekomst: voorbij groei in een economie van gemeenschap’ by dr. Thomas Bauwens and Felix van Hoften

Session about the community economy (in Dutch), by Th. Bauwens
2024-05-18 14:30 - 15:30 | Campus Woudestein, Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, Rotterdam
Session ‘Oplossingen voor de toekomst: voorbij groei in een economie van gemeenschap‘ by dr. Thomas Bauwens and Felix Hoften

Charging the Commons Workshop: Relational interface for more-than-human commons
2024-06-13 19:30 - 21:00
Nieuwe Instituut Zoöp, together with the research and design initiatives Charging the Commons and Dark Matter Lab, is organising a workshop to explore how design can contribute to the technological and organisational conditions of a more-than-human consciousness. What kind of ‘relational interfaces’ can help us to imagine relationships with each other, different life forms and the planet that are based on stewardship and the common good, rather than domination and ownership?

Martijn de Waal (head of the Civic Interaction Design) research group at the AUAS) explains relational technology and relational interfaces on behalf of Charging the Commons.

Designer-researcher Yin Aiwen introduces the relational board game Liquid Dependencies.

Fang-Jui Chang and Calvin Po present some examples of relational interfaces that Dark Matter Labs is using to promote an alternative civic economy.

Meetup about Tegenlicht episode: 'Naomi Klein and the Pull to the Right'
2024-06-20 18:00 - 2024-06-21 20:30
After the results of the European elections of June 6, we will meetup in the Rotterdam Library for inspiration for the political future. The episode of VPRO Tegenlicht about the book ‘Doppelganger’ by Naomi Klein is the central point of discussion during this event. According to author Klein, we must look for the answer in movements that take collective action.

Tine De Moor, professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Florian Cramer, teacher at the Willem de Kooning Academy, will speak during this meetup. They will discuss with the audience what we can do in Rotterdam to strengthen the collective from the bottom up.

This meetup will be in Dutch. There will be a screening of the episode from 18:00-19:00. The programme will start at 19:00. Find more information on this event here.

ICA CCR Europe Research Conference 2024
2024-06-24 08:00 - 2024-06-26 17:00
The overall theme of the 2024 conference in Dundee, Scotland is: ‘Co-operatives, Hybrids, and Democratic Organisations as the Future of Sustainable and Equitable Socio-Economic Development: Operationizing Co-operatives and Democratic Organizations to address contemporary challenges and problems’.

Charging the Commons Final Event | What design can contribute to commoning
2024-07-04 15:00 - 17:00
Join the final event of the Charging the Commons project, where we share and discuss the insights and learnings acquired during this two-year research on how design can contribute to the commons and commoning practices.

The program will be kick-started with a keynote by Prof. Marcus Foth (QUT Digital Media Research Centre) on intermediation in design as a practice of communing, followed by presentations by the Charging the Commons researchers on what it takes to initiate an urban commons, designing collective decision-making processes, and harnessing digital technology for fostering commons values. To close off, a panel discussion will be held to reflect on the research process, the findings, and the role of professionals in the be-commoning process.

ENHR CONFERENCE 2024
2024-08-26 08:00 - 2024-08-30 17:00
Making Housing Systems work: Evidence and Solutions

Many countries are facing greater demand for housing than predicted a few years ago and living in the existing stock is becoming increasingly expensive, partly due to poor insulation and high energy prices. Housing is hardly affordable anymore for young, low- and middle-income groups, especially in larger cities. Marginalization, segregation and affordability are therefore back on the political agenda.The ENHR Conference 2024 will not only be dedicated to further exploring these issues. The emphasis will be on how these problems can be solved. These solutions will be discussed from different perspectives during the six plenary meetings at the conference.

The conference takes place at Delft University of Technology Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment.

PhD Defense Daniel Petrovics
2024-09-18 16:00 - 17:30
Researcher Daniel Petrovics will defend his thesis, titled ‘Rising Together: Polycentric Governance, Niche Expansion & the Scaling of Energy Communities‘.

This study explores how energy communities are revolutionizing Europe’s energy landscape by managing local renewable energy assets and expanding their services. These initiatives are pioneering collective action against the climate crisis at the local scale and promoting energy democracy at the same time. Daniel Petrovics dives into their success, revealing conditions for scaling, underlying mechanisms, and diverse pathways they follow as they grow and expand their services. His research highlights the balance between deploying renewable energy and democratizing energy governance, emphasizing the potential of cooperative resource management and community-driven solutions.

RSVP form

SEICA Open Seminar - Nicolas Jager (WUR)
2024-09-24 16:00 - 17:00
Join us for the start of the new SEICA Open Seminar Talks with Dr. Nicolas Jager, Assistant Professor for the governance of sustainability transformations with the Public Administration and Policy group at Wageningen University & Research.

Does public participation improve environmental governance and foster collective action? What works, when, and how?Participation and collaboration of citizens and organized stakeholders in public decision-making is widely believed to improve environmental governance outputs and lead to enhanced collective action. However, empirical evidence on the benefits of participatory governance is largely scattered across small-N case studies. To synthesize the available case-based evidence, we conducted a broad case-based meta-analysis across 22 Western democracies, including 305 individual cases of public environmental decision-making. Our analysis provides insights to the questions: How do ‘more’ participatory decision-making processes compare against ‘less’ participatory ones in fostering – or hindering – strong environmental governance outputs, (i.e. environmental provisions in plans, agreements or permits)? Which design features make a difference? What role does the decision-making context play? How do results change if we control for the intentions of the leading governmental agency? And how do participatory outputs lead to environmental collective action?

To better familiarize yourself with his work, Nicolas suggested reading “Does stakeholder participation improve environmental governance? Evidence from a meta-analysis of 305 case studies”. Find it here.

This seminar is online. If you would like to attend, please send an e-mail to collective-action@rsm.nl and you will receive a Teams-invite shortly.

Young Researchers Meeting on Cooperatives
2024-10-08 12:00 - 16:30
We are pleased to announce the Young Researchers Meeting on Cooperatives, a collaborative event organized by the Nationale Coöperatieve Raad (NCR) cooperative scholars network and CollectieveKracht. This meeting is designed to bring together early-career researchers with a shared interest in cooperative studies, offering them an opportunity to present their work and build their network.

Event details

Date: Tuesday October 8, 2024

Time: 12:00 – 16:30 (followed by networking drinks)

Location: Erasmus University Rotterdam, Polak Building, room 3-18. (Campus map)

Program outline

12:00-13:00: Lunch 13:00-14:30: Pitches 14:30-15:00: Coffee 15:00-16:30: More pitches 16:45: Networking Drinks

Submission guidelines

Who can apply? We invite PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers working on cooperative studies to submit proposals for a 15-minute presentation, which will include a 10-minute pitch followed by a brief Q&A.

How to apply? Submit a proposal of no more than 500 words, detailing the focus of your research, and specific guiding questions for the group (if any).

Timeline

Proposal submission deadline: Friday, September 20 Friday, September 27

Confirmation by reviewer: Friday, September 27 Monday, September 30.

Deadline PPT slides: Monday, October 7, 17:00.

Apply now

Additional Information

This meeting is the first in a series of events aimed at providing opportunities to bring together the cooperative studies community. Keep an eye out on the NCR website for information on future meetings.

For further inquiries, please contact the coordinator of the event Shreya Paudel (paudel@rsm.nl).

SEICA Open Seminar - Amineh Ghorbani (TU Delft)
2024-10-22 11:00 - 12:00
Join us for a seminar with Amineh Ghorbani, Associate Professor at TU Delft. More information will follow soon.

This seminar is online. If you would like to attend, please send an e-mail to collective-action@rsm.nl and you will receive a Teams-invite shortly.

SEICA Open Seminar - Federico Savini (UvA)
2024-11-19 16:00 - 17:00
Join us for a seminar with Federico Savini, Associate Professor of Environmental Planning, Institutions and Politics at the University of Amsterdam.

Strategic planning for degrowth: what, who, howThe presentation will first unpack the so called ‘strategic thought’ in degrowth research. This is a research field of degrowth that is particularly concerned with the tactics and processes that bring about degrowth as a wider socio-ecological transition. The presentation will identify the key challenges of this thought. Second, the presentation will argue why and how strategic spatial planning can be an important tool in this transition. The arguments will be illustrated looking at the making of the so called ‘doughnut vision’ in Amsterdam.

To better familiarize yourself with his work, Federico suggested reading the article as well as the debate that unfolded with responses here and here.

This seminar is online. If you would like to attend, please send an e-mail to collective-action@rsm.nl and you will receive a Teams-invite shortly.

'Community spirit in the neighbourhood' with a lecture by Tine De Moor
2024-11-26 19:30 - 21:30 | Pakhuis De Zwijger, Piet Heinkade 179, Amsterdam, 1019HC, Netherlands
Update: the recording of this event can be found here.

Communities are the foundation of strong and liveable neighbourhoods. How can housing corporations help neighbourhood communities flourish and grow? Together with residents, experts and representatives of corporations, we will delve into community building and the role social housing providers can play.

As part of the programme, professor Tine De Moor (Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University) will give a seminar.

This evenings program is part of the series ‘Housing for everyone’, organized by Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam.

'Pastory, common property?' with a lecture by Tine De Moor
2024-12-03 20:00 - 22:00
This event will be in Dutch.

More often we see local residents taking the helm. What is their strength and what role does the city play? Professor Tine De Moor from the Rotterdam School of Management will give a lecture about common good.

SEICA Open Seminar - Maximiliaan Menten
2024-12-10 16:00 - 17:00
Join us for a seminar with Maximiliaan Menten, research assistant with the University of Amsterdam.

History of Dutch Water Management: Lessons for Societal Challenges

Water management in the Netherlands knows a long-standing tradition of dealing with the environment, which dates back as far as 500 BC, when people in Friesland built terpen and wierden to protect themselves against water surges. Through time water management in the Netherlands became more structured and mainly involved building and regulating safeguards against the water through dikes, river embankments, and the creation of polders by draining lakes and fenland. This so called Dutch amphibious society can be seen as a long-standing collective tradition of protecting the land against a constant threat from water, and therefore has plenty of examples that can be analysed to provide new perspectives and insights on social entrepreneurship and (corporate) social responsibility.

Maximiliaan will introduce his research on Dutch water management where he explores the link between stakeholder theory and participation and representation within seventeenth century Dutch water management. He will discuss how cooperation in Dutch water boards can be explained, by identifying the different stakeholders and stakeholder relationships through the example of a sea dike in the polder Bunschoten and the Lek River dike between Amerongen and Vreeswijk. By looking at the different stakeholders involved, the question can be asked about the relevant resources of those stakeholders to see if differences in these could help explain differences between the cases examined. By discussing the historiography on participation and representation in Dutch water-boards in the pre-democratic era through the lens of stakeholder theory he hopes to provide a new angle, for current historiography, that can potentially give additional insights on how water boards were managed, as well as contribute to a surging interest in management literature in the research of societal challenges, such as from the perspective of social entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility.

This seminar is online. If you would like to attend, please send an e-mail to collective-action@rsm.nl and you will receive a Teams-invite shortly.

CollectieveKracht event: Stronger together? The power of networks for citizen collectives
2024-12-13 12:00 - 17:00 | Hoofdkantoor Rabobank, Croeselaan 18, Utrecht, 3521 CB
The next CollectieveKracht event will be held on 13 December. The theme of the event is the power and impact of collaboration within different forms of networks for citizen collectives. The breakout sessions will explore how regional, sectoral and social networks can contribute to the strengthening and growth of these collectives, as well as the potential benefits and challenges of franchise models and scaling up. In addition, the question will be considered whether smaller initiatives, like larger networks, can also have an influence on local policy. How do these networks play a vital role in creating sustainable, well-functioning communities?

The language during this event will be Dutch.

Dutch Academy of Research in Entrepreneurship (DARE) Annual Meeting
2025-02-13 12:00 - 17:00
This event will be in Dutch.

Expect inspiring keynotes on scaling impact by professor Tine De Moor (Rotterdam School of Management), Niels Bosma (Utrecht University) and Maarten Hogenstijn (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences). More speakers will follow.

Additionally, there will be in-depth sessions on impact measurement and entrepreneurial skills. During the afternoon, you have the opportunity to network with like-minded professionals.

SEICA Open Seminar - Ismael Vaccaro
2025-02-18 16:00 - 17:00
Join us for a seminar with Ismael Vaccaro, Associate Professor, McGill School of Environment and Department of Anthropology, Bieler School of Environment. He will present his research: ‘Reimagining modern politics in the European mountains: confronting the traditional commons with the novel conceptions of the common good.”

This seminar is online. If you would like to attend, please send an e-mail to collective-action@rsm.nl and you will receive a Teams-invite shortly.

To better familiarize yourself with his work, Ismael suggested reading the article below.

2023 Vaccaro et al. T&SDownload

Aspiring Commons – (Re)discoveries and Learning Opportunities from the Global South
2025-03-27 13:30 - 17:45 | Campus Woudestein, Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, Rotterdam
Join us for a thought-provoking symposium, titled Aspiring Commons – (Re)discoveries and Learning Opportunities from the Global South. During this afternoon, we aim to explore how practices from the Global South can inspire and inform collective action initiatives in Europe. The keynote will be given by Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The symposium will also include presentations and a panel discussion on how transdisciplinary approaches, reciprocity between academics and practitioners, and innovative frameworks can address wicked problems and support sustainable resource management.

Register

This event will take place at Campus Woudestein, Erasmus University Rotterdam. If you would like to attend, sign up through the form.

About the keynote speaker

Ruth Meinzen-Dick is a Senior Research Fellow at IFPRI, where she leads groundbreaking research on natural resource governance, agricultural development, and gender. She has extensive transdisciplinary research experience in using qualitative and quantitative research methods. Her work focuses on two broad (and sometimes interrelated) areas: how institutions affect how people manage natural resources, and the role of gender in development processes. This has led her to study land and water policy, property rights, collective action and other governance arrangements, games for experiential learning, and the impact of development interventions, drawing on fieldwork in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.

Ruth is a co-creator of the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) and recipient of the Elinor Ostrom Collective Governance of the Commons 2019 Senior Scholar Award. She holds a PhD in development sociology from Cornell University.

Presentations

Rosalba Icaza Garza, Associate Professor Global Politics, Feminisms and Decoloniality at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam. With her presentation she will dive into the question: Can we respond to the possibility of an ethical life that is not structurally implicated with the suffering and the consumption of the life of earth and others?

Julie-Marthe Lehmann, researcher and founder of Spaarkracht. She became intrigued by the concept of savings groups in the Global South and conducted action-oriented research on their potential effects in the Netherlands, culminating in her dissertation “Balancing the social and financial side of the coin.“

Fabio de Castro, senior lecturer at CEDLA, the Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam. He is coordinator of the Master Programme in Latin American Studies and chair of the Netherlands Association for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. He will will discuss how innovative practices, social interactions, and institutions emerging within various forest-based economies in Brazil can serve as a source of inspiration for other regions in fostering more inclusive and sustainable value chains.

On the panel

Ruth Meinzen-Dick.

Cee Marlin, practitioner with more than 20 years of experience in sustainability and environmentally friendly projects and agriculture in the Global South, with special focus on the Caribbean.

Diana Suhardiman, professor of Natural Resource Governance, Climate and Equity at Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, Leiden University.

Taslim Alade, senior lecturer at the Business-Society Management Department, Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), focusing on impact-driven education and research in a complex and interconnected world.

Moderation: Lukas Held, CollectieveKracht project coordinator.

Location

Erasmus University Rotterdam (map), Sanders Building, room 0-01.

ICA CCR Research Conference 2025
2025-06-12 08:00 - 2025-06-13 17:00
The International Cooperative Alliance Committee on Cooperative Research Europe (ICA CCR Europe) conference will be organised in Helsinki, Finland on the 12th to 13th of June in 2025. An in-depth Young Scholars day/doctoral student session will be held in Joensuu at 11th June, prior to the conference.

The theme of the conference will be Cooperative Identity – Who we are as a movement, a form of organization and as cooperators?

IASC Conference 2025 - International Association for the Study of the Commons
2025-06-16 08:00 - 2025-06-25 17:00
