Exploring Argentina through a ‘cooperative route’

Inspired by Cooproute, the Ruta Argentina de Cooperativas (Argentina’s Cooperative Route, in English) was launched in 2016 and has so far published the details of sixty cooperatives on its website. And the aim? To demonstrate the economic, social, and cultural contribution cooperatives have made across the country in order to raise the profile of little-known aspects of its heritage.

“Since the project started a number of exchanges and relationships have come about, based on the connections we’ve encouraged cooperatives to strike up”, said Mirta Vuotto, one of the project’s promoters from the Universidad de Buenos Aires (University of Buenos Aires, in English). The first stage of the Ruta Argentina de Cooperativas virtual platform has been completed and the website is now online

It offers information about cooperatives working in different sectors and regions of the country, giving details of their products and services. “Using the information we collected for the website we’ve been able to describe different aspects of the cooperatives: their life cycles, levels of sustainability, and positioning, as well as any broadening of their main services, including social services, cultural services, young people’s and women’s inclusion in social and cultural activities, and developing projects to protect the environment, among others”, added Vuotto.

The production of the website was sponsored by the Ministerio de Educación y Deportes de la Nación (National Ministry of Education and Sports) and the Universidad de Buenos Aires. The project also had additional collaboration from a group of teachers and students from the Universidad Católica Argentina (Argentina Catholic University) as well as other organisations: http://rutacoop.com.ar/nosotros. The first stage of the project has come to an end and it is now into its second stage: to increase the amount of content on the website and add new experiences in other areas across the country’s thirteen provinces.

“By adding other experiences that show the culture and values of the cooperative movement, we hope more young people will get involved who can act as role models for the organisations in each area, and create the right environment for the emergence of new leaders in the sector. We also hope to have a social impact on the communities included on the route, and circulate the cooperative model among students and the wider public, using case studies to show them how it works”, concluded Mirta Vuotto.