Dr. Dongre has served as Professor of Commerce and the Director of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Board at the University of Mysore, India. Dr. Dongre is also a Consultant to the High-Powered Committee on Cooperatives set up by the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, and serves as the Co-Secretary of the ICA-AP Committee on Cooperatives in Educational Institutions.
How did you get involved in the book?
I owe it to the ICA-AP Research Committee. I have been a regular participant in the ICA-AP research conferences. During the Research Conference held in Bali, Indonesia during 2014, I met with Dr. Anthony Jensen from Australia and Dr. Ben Nieto from the Philippines. Anthony Jensen asked some of us, and Prof. Akira Kurimoto from Hosei University, Japan to discuss and explore the possibility of joint research on issues related to cooperatives in the Asian Pacific region. After a couple of hours of brainstorming, all of us were convinced of the need to build a cooperative scholarship in the Asian Pacific region, and as a step towards realising that we need to carry out research and publish scholarly works as a team. I think I was part of the book project due to this path breaking event that happened on the side-lines of the ICA-AP Research Conference.
What was your experience as you interacted with the editors and authors on the book?
This is my second experience being part of a book which is the product of a multi country joint effort among the Asian Pacific academic circle. In my first, a publication by Springer on the Governance of Third Sector Organization in Asia, I was part of the research and an author for the publication. This time around, I was part of the editorial team and has had the experience of sharing and learning from important scholars of the region. Over a period of four years all the editors and many of the authors could personally meet and interact. As the meetings of the editors was generally held on the side-lines of the ICA-AP research conferences, it provided a unique opportunity for the editors to interact with the authors and understand their perspectives. At a personal level, being part of the editors group and interacting with other editors provided me with a chance to see how we all share common concerns and think on a common wavelength, though our perspectives need not necessarily be the same. Six of us from six different regional, linguistic and cultural backgrounds working together was by itself a great lesson on collective and cooperative way of working for a common cause.
What are the key takeaways from the Asian cooperatives experience?
Cooperatives in Asia are generally seen to be state sponsored and depending on state patronage. But during the course of our interactions with authors of case studies and by reading through the examples of successful cooperatives of the region, we witnessed a different and very positive dimension as well. Successful cooperatives in the region have shown tremendous capabilities to survive and succeed in a ‘not so friendly’, if not hostile, setting. They have been innovative, pursued a professional approach and stood for members’ benefit. Therefore, the most important takeaway to my mind is that cooperatives in the region certainly have the potential to withstand crisis and evolve into more autonomous and member centric organizations. It looks cooperatives are likely to expand in the Asian region especially in new and emerging areas such as health care, education and related services, urban utilities, and as youth entrepreneurship especially start-ups by first generation entrepreneurs.
How did you narrow down on the cooperatives which were featured from India?
Over the years, in the various seminars and conferences on cooperatives, in particular the ICA-AP research seminars and annual conferences by Indian Society for Studies on Cooperatives, many case studies on successful cooperatives in India were presented by researchers. So, we had an idea about the important cooperative initiatives in the country. For the purpose of this book, we were looking to have case studies of such cooperatives which are generally of relatively large size, have diverse activities and/or unique in terms of the way they are formed and run. We actually did a sort of key-informant survey by informally speaking to scholars from different states and prepared a list of cooperatives that fulfil the above criteria. The authors were asked to select a cooperative from this list, based on their own assessment of suitability for the book.
What are the core lessons from the case studies regarding the role of cooperatives?
The case studies included in the book are those of successful cooperatives with a specific focus on what challenges these cooperatives faced and how did they manage to overcome such challenges over the years. Speaking of Indian cases which include an agricultural cooperative and two worker cooperatives, one key lesson is the capacity of cooperatives to withstand crisis and their resilience, where there is a clear vision and purpose motivating the members and leaders. Two of the three cases demonstrate how cooperatives can expand and diversify to meet varied needs of the member community, while the other shows cooperatives can successfully deliver in the most unconventional and highly competitive sphere of the economy like public transport. Therefore, to my mind, the case studies establish that cooperatives can survive, compete and be an effective alternative in a market which is threatening to be growing in a unipolar dimension due to the neoliberal policies pursued by policy makers.
How do you see the future for cooperatives in educational institutions in the region?
I have always held that the cooperatives in educational institutions, especially those having the entire institutional community, students, teachers, staff and management of the institution as members, are extremely important for any country. In India, cooperative leaders encouraged formation of cooperatives in schools and higher education institutions, right at the beginning of the cooperative movement in the country. The fact that the first cooperative in educational institution was established as early as 1912, shows that they were seen as a very important cog in the wheel of cooperative sector. Unfortunately, though, barring a few countries – Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia for example – not many countries in the region have pursued promoting cooperatives in educational institutions with the required vigour and enthusiasm. They are the best laboratories (in fact, these cooperatives are called Laboratory Cooperative in the Philippines) for young people to learn about cooperatives, through actual participation. At a time when youth need to be roped in to the movement in a big way, establishing cooperatives in educational institutions is the one best way of preparing and attracting them to the movement.
What opportunities are there for cooperatives in the region during the current COVID-19 crisis? And how does this book address this issue?
In times of crisis, whether due to economic downturns or natural disasters, cooperatives have demonstrated that they remain resilient and take care of the suffering community. The present pandemic situation is no different. Cooperatives the world over have responded to the needs of the community. With globalization and neo-liberal economic policies widening the rich-poor and urban-rural divide and the markets witnessing a unipolar growth, there is need both for a more equitable institutional choice as well as a constructive competitor. Cooperatives are the best to be this alternative. The Covid-19 crisis is indeed a global crisis and most marginalized groups are the sufferers. At these times, it is important to look to successful cooperative initiatives. This book highlights through case studies, how such cooperatives have evolved and thus provides a roadmap for more cooperatives in the region to adopt ways and means of becoming stronger and succeeding in the market place. Also, it is the community participation and engagement which is central to addressing the present crisis and here again the book provides many leads to policy makers both for engaging communities and for mainstreaming cooperatives and such other social businesses.
What is the future of APCRP and for the Editors of this book?
One of the main aims of APCRP is promoting cooperative scholarship in the Asian Pacific region. Therefore, apart from continuing to collaborate for serious academic research on cooperatives, APCRP would increasingly focus on more such publications. The editors of this book have already begun discussions on the next publication and we hope to realize that in the next three-four years. Also, we intend to nurture and support other groups on themes critical to the cooperative sector in the region and through this encourage new and young scholars to publish their works through publishing platforms that help drawing global attention towards Asian Pacific cooperative scholarship.
