Introduction
This page contains three ‘live action role play’ (LARP) activities to learn about solidarity co-operatives and their multi-stakeholder governance and decision-making processes. They were designed by members of staff at the FairShares Institute for Co-operative Social Entrepreneurship, Sheffield Hallam University (https://fsi.coop) and a lecturer at Oxford Brookes University. The role plays involve a fictional company (Future Energy Ltd), but the scenarios are based on real project work that took place during a knowledge exchange programme in 2011, and an EU project on the creation of FairShares Labs between 2016-2019.
Role play 01 (‘Choosing a Constitution’) occurs early in the life of Future Energy, when its founders have worked as a partnership for 3 years. This role play involves deciding whether to incorporate a co-operative society or co-operative company to secure funds for expansion.
Role play 02 (‘Licensing IP to a Housing Group’) takes place 3 years later. It involves making a decision about a long-term investment in a joint venture with a housing association after a successful project.
Role play 03 (‘FairShares Commoning’) takes place approximately 5 years later (chronologically) when there are many housing association members who make a proposal to convert to a FairShares Commons Company.
Read the descriptions, then download and distribute materials as required. All materials are licensed to you using a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) 4.0 International Licence.