The Stone Soup Co-operative is part of a growing movement that sees co-operatives as an answer to many trends that are affecting society.
(1) The tendency of what Dr. Stefano Zamagni, Bologna University, calls "positional competition" to turn economic life into a zero-sum game, where one actor wins by having another lose.(2) The global tendency to pass over workers above the age of forty, viewed against the global trend of the Baby Boomer population ageing.
(3) The necessity of creating trust (or "social capital") within our communities where "positional" capitalists tend to consume, and not produce, trust.
The Stone Soup Co-operative is a home for a number of alternative-lifestyle projects, organized co-operatively and providing employment opportunities for its members.
On this website you will find literature on the co-operative movement, on local economies, on barter, and related topics, designed to help you organized cooperatively in your community and begin creating trust relations instead of cut-throat competition.
Most of us heard it when we were children. The story goes like this.
Two soldiers returning from a war entered a village. They had no money and so they went from door to door asking for free food. Everyone was short of food and so no one obliged.
So the two of them sat down at the village cooking pit and lit a fire. Over it, they hung a large kettle filled with water. In it, they put a few large, clean stones.
One by one the villagers came out and inquired what the soldiers were making. The soldiers said it was stone soup. The villagers asked how they could receive a portion of it and the soldiers explained that anyone who contributed could receive a portion.
So the villagers went back to their houses and each emerged with a different ingredient. One brought potatoes; one brought carrots; one, onions; one, meat; one salt and herbs. When it was all combined in one pot, it made stone soup.
Then, all the villagers, including the two soldiers, had a great feast and spent the evening getting to know each other.
The moral is: When people work together, they can accomplish things they cannot accomplish alone.
The procedure of making stone soup is to contribute whatever ingredient one can and make soup from the combination of it all. When one begins, one doesn't know what each participant will bring. The outcome is almost certain to be a surprise.
If we are to protect ourselves against pension loss, shrinking government services, falling wages, flat-investment returns, and ageist unemployment, we need to band together and pool our talents, to create common ventures that provide employment for members of the group -- a hospice, a bulk-food store, a bakery, a bookstore -- whatever the ingredients, whatever the form the stone soup takes.
