About the Book
In this second edition of The Cooperative Society: The Next Stage of Human History, we present the hypothesis that humans may be on the threshold of a new historical stage, one characterized by cooperation, democracy, the equitable distribution of resources, and a sustainable relationship with nature.
We analyze and report on seven measures representing economic, political, social, and an environmental transition to the cooperative society: (1) concentration of economic power, (2) wealth and income equality, (3) deaths from domestic and international conflicts, (4) more or fewer people living in democratic countries, (5) population change, (6) improving or deteriorating quality of life, and (7) improving or deteriorating environmental conditions.
The Cooperative Societyis also a call to action. Our purpose for writing this book is to motivate and assist readers in restructuring our economic, political, and social behavior and institutions in ways that are better for humanity and for our planet. We outline key areas of work and envision opportunities for changes that can be made by 2030, which is the target date for both the Paris Accord on Climate Change and the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals.
About the Author :
E.G. Nadeau has an undergraduate degree in sociology from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has been researching, developing, teaching, and writing about cooperatives and communities for over 45 years. From 2014-2015, Nadeau served as the research director for the US Overseas Cooperative Development Council, and organized the International Cooperative Research Group, a division of OCDC. For more than 30 years, Nadeau has been doing domestic and international co-op consulting work for Cooperative Development Services, the National Cooperative Business Association/CLUSA, Land O' Lakes International Development Division, the U.S. Overseas Cooperative Development Council, and other organizations. He served on the faculty of the Cooperative Management Education Program at St. Mary's University in Halifax, N.S. from 2004 to 2013. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin. Luc Nadeau has a Bachelor of Science degree in ecology from Western Washington University and a Master of Science degree in ecology from Colorado State University. He is an entrepreneur, artist, and freelance ecologist, living in Longmont, Colorado.
Review :
Excerpts from the Foreword to this Second Edition of The Cooperative Society
This tightly organized book will make you think and will give you reason to hope. . . . The authors, E.G. Nadeau and Luc Nadeau, assess the pathway of humans on Earth over the past several hundred thousand years, and the potential of humans going forward. . . .
They boldly suggest that the next era will be the cooperative society, wherein people work together locally, at smaller scale, with greater democratic participation, generating less inequality, with reduced environmental degradation. . . .
[Their] strategy of predicting the future does several things well: it gets our attention, it illuminates their reasoning, and it provides markers for assessing whether they will be right, or not so right. Thus, they are not merely advocating a set of values, but also taking intellectual responsibility for the assessment. This is a highly desirable combination of reasoning, innovation, and testing, which are hallmarks of the best applied social science.
Michael Sherradan, Ph.D., George Warren Brown Distinguished University
Professor, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
Praise for the first edition of The Cooperative Society
"The Cooperative Society . . . does an outstanding job of explaining the context for change and, just as importantly, the urgent need for such a change."
Charles Gould, past Director-General, International Co-operative Alliance
"The Cooperative Societyis a refreshing and hopeful analysis of major trends in human behavior."
Judy Ziewacz, former President and CEO, National Cooperative Business Association/CLUSA
"I liked The Cooperative Societya lot. It's both forward-looking and grand in its historical context - and irredeemably hopeful, especially given the current political craziness."
Burt Solomon, contributing editor, The Atlanticand National Journal
"The Cooperative Societyis a hopeful and practical blueprint of where we all need to place our focus if we wish to contribute to the evolution of a more resilient, egalitarian, peaceful and co-operative society. With wonderfully informative graphics, [the authors] present encouraging insights on just how far we have come already, and where we need to put our efforts now to get us to the next stage of human history."
Wendy Holm, agronomist, columnist, journalist, writer,
Bowen Island, British Columbia, Canada
"The Cooperative Societylays out major drivers of our socio/political/economic environment, but it also develops a useful framework for measuring and monitoring these factors over time."
Walden Swanson, founder and Director Emeritus, CoMetrics
"This is the ultimate message of this book: We as a species are not destined to destroy ourselves and our planet. We can make the transition from a destructive society to a cooperative one. And we can make major progress on that transition between now and 2030."
From the Conclusion
