Networking between equals: from subcontracting to intercooperation
- Before the creation of the Talaios cooperative, it was already clear that they wanted to have an intense network of contacts with other agents. They give much importance and time to the construction of the network in daily practice: "One of our bases is to do everything we do with the mesh," he added. Most of their invoicing is obtained from networked relationships, but these are not developed through empty commercial actions. "Social commitment" is what the actors share in the projects.
The Talaios cooperative was set up by three members and there are now nine members. But parenting is very carefully lived. "When we address any project, we don't want to create more structures within us. We have strong relationships with other existing structures or we create other structures, but outside Talaio. That's what we would call intercooperation today, but when we started in Talais, we didn't know what intercooperation was."
The crisis had shown them the value of smallness: "Talaios was created in 2011, at the hardest time of the financial crisis. We were coming from other projects, and we all saw that in the 2000s, augmented projects were in crisis, many of them were growing very fast, even closing." The cooperative that would be constituted should have resilience, "and we believe that one of the keys to resilience is to have horizontal structures, that is, to weave with them, instead of absorbing the others within the structure of Talaís".
Keys to relate horizontally to equals
The key to maintaining horizontal relationships with other agents who share values is "commitment", for the members of Talais: "That relations are not commercial, that they are not based on the market, but on social commitment", he added. They feel that the logic of distributed networks gives them "a great strategic freedom": "It doesn't take us to logical product services, it doesn't bind us to having to work everything for us. It gives us the ability to make much more ambitious projects, which we couldn't do alone." They believe that, being each small one, working in a network and inventing strategies, one can become "counter-hegemonic".
These relationships between equals are between flesh and bone: "Talais' relationship with another cooperative remains at the theoretical level, they are two pure legal forms in themselves, but there are two collective people and at the center is the relationship between these people. This relationship between groups of people is the engine for developing other strategies". It is a question of developing strong community relations between the people involved in these projects, "outside the scope of individualisation and the family that liberalism obliges us to do". It is clear that the accumulation of dense emotional and personal relationships provides great resilience at the affective level: "That's what gives us strength. The network allows you to meet people, create a lot of relationships and make real friends, and feel protected from a community."
Coser network is a conscious work of many hours
Talais' purely commercial work has been carried out "very little": "The point isn't that we don't do any commercial work, but we do it in a different way, projecting it into the network. Our commercial client is on the net." The majority of Talais' billing comes from the relationships generated in this network. That is why they spend a lot of time working on the network: "We have not measured too much and we have limited the time, but in Talaios we have agreed to spend a lot of time on it," he added. When much is said, at least in the case of a member, it is almost half of his activity.
These are the networks in which Talaios has been consciously sewing:
- Olatukoop: Talaios spent a lot of time from the beginning creating Olatukoop, the transformative social economy network, "because we saw that we needed a network of equals. We have been very involved in making this network a reality, because we consider the existence of Olatukoop to be essential in the identity and strategy of Talais". Subsequently, they were involved in the creation of the KoopFabrika programme that drives entrepreneurship through Olatukoop.
- Talaios also participates in Koop57: "Because finance is another field of the network that we really need." The President of the Basque Country in Koop57 is a member of Talaios who works in the working hours of this working group.
- In the last two years, emphasis has been placed on the backbone of its sector: Work has been done on the creation of a TEKS network linking free technologies with the social economy. One of the results of this start-up is the project Mycroft.eus that they are developing together with the cooperative Skura and Elhuyar.
- In the last year, repopulation in their respective territories has been chosen: The headquarters of Talais is located in Oarsoaldea and Torrekua is working on the co-working project to weave the network in the village. And they also need each worker to get entangled at home: "One of our colleagues is in Andalusia and another in Barcelona, and each one has a time from Talaios for the testimonies and networks he wants to make in his territory," he added. In this way they have participated in the construction of the Biziola network of the Goierri region.
The nine spiders that are sewing and sewing will continue to expand resilient networks, deepening inter-cooperation relationships, creating mutualism tools for the future...
FICHE
What it does: Analyse, design and develop digital tools based on free technologies. Training and strategic accompaniment combining the Transformative Social Economy and free technologies.
Workers and partners: 9.
Created: 2011.
Residence: Orereta/Errenteria.
Contact: kontaktua@talaios.coop
