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Co-operatives and universities working in solidarity during the time of polycrises
13 May 2026
Happening On
19/05/2026
Upcoming event on May 19th at 2pm in CACSSS Seminar Room, O'Rahilly Building, UCC which will focus on how co-operatives and universities can work together against threats to higher education. Seminar given by Dr Michelle Stack, University of British Columbia.
Join us for the next seminar in the 2026 Collective Social Futures Seminar Series
in collaboration with the Centre for Co-operative Studies, UCC
Co-operatives and universities working in solidarity during the time of polycrises
Dr Michelle Stack
A
ssociate Professor, Department of Educational Studies,
University of British Columbia
Tuesday, 19 May 2026, 2-3 pm
CACSSS Seminar Room, O'Rahilly Building, UCC
Register
here.
Abstract
Cooperative governance models align with the stated missions of many universities to promote community-engagement, EDI and sustainability; yet, they are under-theorized and underutilized across the higher education sector. This paper examines the potential to develop and sustain campus cooperatives through prefigurative practices. Prefigurative practices create a desired future by practicing it in the present (Chertkovskaya et al., 2024).
In this presentation, I will propose that prefigurative cooperative pedagogies could provide possibilities amid growing threats to education, academic freedom, and democratic life. The project I am working on aims to contribute to higher education and cooperative scholarship and pedagogy by bridging critical higher education studies and cooperative studies. These fields are rarely brought into sustained dialogue to examine how cooperative governance could provide a space to practice more equitable ways of living, working, and learning together where pressures on public universities and public spheres are rapidly intensifying.
Biographical note
Dr Michelle Stack is an associate professor in Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia. Her early research focused on university rankings and their role in amplifying inequity and media-market-based competition in education. More recently, she has focused on the potential to expand the cooperative sector in higher education as a means of developing solidarity, fostering democratic governance, and addressing the growing food and housing insecurity crisis throughout the post-secondary sector.
Michelle also works in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, which is often represented as a “problem” community in Canada, but is a leader in developing co-ops and other forms of social solidarity. She is part of the Diverse Solidarity Economies Collective and has hosted podcasts on cooperatives focused on the education sector.
