FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 1, 2014
Licensing deals in three continents, and translations in more than 10 languages underway
AMHERST, Mass—The independently produced board game Co-opoly: The Game of Cooperatives is spreading its global reach with the addition of Argentina to the International Co-opoly Board. Representatives from organizations that produce Co-opoly in their country are eligible to serve on the board. The current members are working together to create an innovative, collaborative contract and supply chain to translate and ethically produce Co-opoly in Spain, France, Germany, South Korea, the UK, the Philippines, the United States, and beyond.
“We are creating a cooperative and collaborative system for international Co-opoly that looks beyond the traditional licensing agreement structure,” said Toolbox for Education and Social Action (TESA) worker-owner David Morgan. “We’re building an agreement that has increased accessibility, mutual support, and global profit sharing. In doing so, we’re embodying the principles laid out by Co-opoly and the cooperative movement at large.”
TESA designed and produces Co-opoly, which has been on the market since 2011. TESA has been working with Barcelyona, a worker-cooperative that produces games and educational publications, to develop an international board and a licensing agreement to produce Co-opoly in the European Union, Asia, and now, parts of South America.
“There is extensive global interest in Co-opoly, and organizations from all over the world are coming forward to both translate the game, and localize it for production,” said Alexis Urusoff, of Barcelonya. “We are hoping to build a unique platform for Co-opoly internationally, and the conditions and timing seemed primed for success.”
“We’re encouraged to see how Co-opoly is rapidly spreading around the globe, as it speaks to a larger desire for alternatives to disaster capitalism and an understanding that the cooperative movement is part of the solution to our current global economic and environmental situation,” said TESA worker-owner Andrew Stachiw.
Co-opoly is one of the only known games created by and for the cooperative movement, designed to educate people in a fun and compelling way about cooperative businesses. The game has been enjoyed by a wide variety of people, from families looking for a game that focuses on cooperation not competition, to newly formed cooperatives interested in practicing cooperative management, to university classrooms studying alternative economic models.
TESA is a worker-owned cooperative that designs resources for economic and social change. Since 2011, TESA has been creating educational tools and partnering with organizations across the United States to develop dynamic, effective, and innovative resources that address a wide array of social issues.
For more information, contact:
Andrew Stachiw
Worker-owner, Toolbox for Education and Social Action
Image credit: Factorial Consultora. This is the Argentinian version of Co-opoly!
