Invitation to Contribute to the next issue of IACD’s Practice Insights Magazine on the theme of: “Cooperatives, Social and Community Development, for a Sustainable, Equitable and Better World.”

The United Nations has declared 2025 the International Year of Cooperatives (IYC2025), in recognition of the role Cooperatives play in fostering sustainable and equitable development, their contribution to addressing key global challenges and to ‘building a better world’.

This year, as part of a series of events and activities to promote IVC2025, the International Association for Community Development (IACD) is dedicating an issue of Practice Insights, our bi-annual publication for Community Development practitioners, researchers, and academics to the theme of Cooperatives, Social and Community Development, for a Sustainable, Equitable and Better World.

IACD recognises the UN IYC2025 as an opportunity for everyone concerned with social and community development to call for policies that support community empowerment, collective action, and solidarity, which place renewed focus on social justice, human rights, and climate justice and within that to emphasize the important role of cooperatives in achieving equitable and sustainable development.

Submission Guidelines
If you are involved in a Cooperative, or an initiative that is adopting the cooperative model and has a focus on community development practice, we would love to hear from you and invite you to send us a short 500- word abstract (summary) of your proposed article by Friday 25th April. The abstract should outline the intended topic, framing, and scope of the article. Abstracts will undergo an editorial review process and feedback will be provided to support alignment with the issue’s theme. Abstracts should be submitted to [email protected]

Authors of accepted abstracts will receive further guidelines and are invited to submit full articles of up to 1,500 words by Friday 6th June, 2025.

Cooperatives, Social and Community Development
In our recent response to the UN Global consultation on Social Development, IACD expressed concerns that despite some progress on social issues, equitable progress for all has been held back by the dominance of neoliberal economics and ideology, leading to and reinforcing widespread poverty, inequality, discrimination, social exclusion, environmental crisis, conflict and insecurity. This is reinforced by dominant narratives that individualise issues, and responsibility for them.

In contrast, IACD recognises the strong connection between the cooperative model with its focus on member ownership and democratic control, and the core community development values of community participation and empowerment.

Community development is a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes participative democracy, sustainable development, human rights, economic opportunity, equality and social justice, through the organisation, education and empowerment of people within their communities, whether these be of locality, identity or interest, in urban and rural settings.

Suggested Topics:
We welcome contributions on a variety of themes exploring the contribution of Cooperatives to social and community development, including but not limited to:
• Serving as tangible examples of community development: Showcasing participation, empowerment, and collective action, providing valuable models for policy frameworks.
• Addressing poverty, marginalisation, and exclusion: Creating economic opportunities, enabling access to resources, and fostering inclusive growth, while challenging systemic inequalities.
• Promoting social justice: Operating on principles of equality and inclusivity, providing space for diverse voices, actively combating discrimination, and ensuring equitable access.
• Advocating for climate justice: Prioritising environmental sustainability and contributing to climate action, contributing to delivery of the SDGs.
• Challenging neo-liberalism and the legacy of colonialism: Offering an alternative model that promotes collective ownership, democratic decision-making, and the equitable distribution of resources.
• Promoting human rights: Upholding principles of dignity and respect, ensuring member voice and promoting a human rights-based approach.
• Recognising and supporting agency and voice: Empowering communities to define their own agendas, fostering self-determination, and ensuring community voice in decision-making.

We look forward to receiving your abstracts and learning from your experiences. Please share this call with your networks to help us reach a broad community of contributors!

#cooperativesbuildabetterworld