Talk:Cooperation
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Questionnaire to find out the needs for co-operation and collaboration in research. No spam - this is a non profit EU project. --Gerfriedc 21:25, 12 September 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Not-hyphenated and hyphenated forms 'Cooperation' and 'Co-operation'
Why is cooperation spelled "co-operation" here? RJII 04:23, 8 Feb 2005 (UTC)
- I'm definitely in favour of 'cooperation' myself. I have no idea why the hyphenated version is being used. Mark Elliott 13:24, 19 October 2005 (UTC)
- Me neither. The hyphenated form wasn't even listed as a variant in several mainstream dictionaries. Thus, I moved the page to "cooperation". Interestingly, at the time of the move, there were already more internal links to the non-hyphenated version than to the hyphenated version (by about a 10 to 7 ratio). CMYK 23:16, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
Firstly, I have altered the title of this discussion thread.
Secondly, I have added the following text at the Wikitionary entry for 'cooperatiuon':
"Hyphenated 'co-operation' and unhyphenated 'cooperation' have different meanings, usages and searchability
This entry is at the heart of a serious issue - the co-option of language for political ends.
At http://www.co-opnet.coop/viewtopic.php?t=514 I've posted an essay concerning the appropriation of the word ‘cooperation’ from its antecedent, hyphenated form, ‘co-operation’, along, there, with the wordnet.princeton.edu definition of 'cooperation'.
(Additionally, the OED tells me that their preferred form is, now, the unhyphenated form - due, they say, to usage statistics.)
So the problems are two-fold (with one technical point).
The technical point is that the Internet domain name for co-operatives is the unhyphenated form .coop - this form was 'forced' on co-operators when this domain name was created, about ten years' ago. The cited reason for the use of .coop rather than .co-op was that the domain name character set did not include the hyphen (or I guess? any other punctuation marks) - there was discussion, for example at co-opnet, of this at the time. This seems to have initiated, for example, use of the (even more bizarre) use the unhyphenated form 'coop' rather than the phonetically distinct form 'co-op'.
The substantive issues are that:
a) The co-operative movement has always used the hyphen - the global federal is, for example, the (hyphenated) 'International Co-operative Alliance' (ICA - see www.ica.coop ), and - with the exception of US usage and some UK publication style guides from not-co-operatives - co-operators, co-operatives and co-operative organizations all use(d) the hyphenated form.
b) The not-hyphenated form has significantly different meaning (imposed or developed) than the hyphenated form - as the wordnet.princeton.edu definition shows. That imposed/developed meaning has none of the voluntary equality contained in (say) the ICA Statement on the Co-operative Identity, but is, rather, a coercive usage - more akin to 'compliance'.
These matters also have lexical implications - not least that internet searching delivers separate information sets, depending on whether the searcher specifies the not- or hyphenated-forms.
Could Wikipedians or Wikitionary contributors consider these conundrums?"
I continue discussion of the usage point at the talk section, here, titled /* Cooperation vs Co-operation */
[edit] Cooperation vs Competition
Before I leap in and add anything, would you consider adding a coda to the page? The terms competition and cooperation are studied separately in the West, but from an Eastern perspective they are considered as necessarily interdependent processes, if they are considered at all. There the perspective on interaction is one of synergy. Since wikipedia is for all peoples this might help to link the gulf in perspectives.
______________________
“Cooperation is the antithesis of competition, however, the need or desire to compete with others is a very common impetus that motivates individuals to organize into a group and cooperate with each other in order to form a stronger competitive force.”
The first clause is refuted by the rest of the sentence which makes it clear that cooperation and competition are NOT antitheses. And it refutes the first paragraph of the entry which says that “cooperation refers to… working in common… instead of… competition.” Since both can be together the word “instead” is wrong.
Do game theory researchers also have the idea they are mutually exclusive? The animal kingdom is rife with cases of symbiosis, which is cooperation for the purpose of competition. For humans the ultimate example is warfare where cooperation occurs on a massive scale for the purpose of the ultimate, life or death (presumably Darwinian) competition.
And something else occurs with the military: coercion. Where does it fit in?
It seems to me that there are three, not two, modes of interaction: competition, cooperation, and coercion. It seems to me that all three are pervasive, operating at the macro level (lions, daffodils), the micro level (germs, blood cells), and at the molecular level within living cells (viruses, hormones). It seems to me that there are no other modes of interaction.
Further, it seems to me that of the three competition is paramount, that the other two serve and moderate competition, that competition may occur without the other two but the other two cannot occur without competition being present. For example you coerce (say, point a pistol) in order to extract something (money, sex) that will give you competitive advantage. For example you cooperate (say, in a fishermen’s coop) in order to better compete (in the fishing industry).
I am wondering: Has anyone else made these connections?
- Pepper 150.203.2.85 00:43, 12 February 2006 (UTC)
i'm in favor of "coöperation".Italic text
