Ageing populations and the development of new institutions
On June 7, 2016, and on behalf of Strategic Research Theme ‘Institutions for Open Societies’ in collaboration with Daniëlle Harkes and Yvonne Witter on behalf of the organized the sixth Think Tank Session about ageing populations and the development of new institutions in living, care and welfare around the theme ‘Together or better alone (II)? Cooperation between care cooperatives and other organizations’.
The meeting was a follow-up of the think tank organized last year. The central question was how cooperation between care cooperatives (small-scale citizen collectives founded to organize all kind of services related to living, welfare and health care) and other organizations (such as municipalities, care organizations and insurance companies) could be improved. Jan Snijders (Austerlitz Zorgt) gave a presentation about the experiences of the care cooperative Austerlitz Zorgt emphasizing the importance of grassroots support in the enhancement of one’s negotiating position and necessity to take the lead instead of sitting back waiting for the initiative of other parties. Don van Sambeek told about the long and rocky road the 'Koepel Zorgcoöperaties Zuid-Nederland' had to go to manage a contract with an insurance company illustrating the fundamental tension between the rules of the system and the philosophy of custom made care. In between, Henk Nies (VU/Vilans) presented a more general overview about how the cooperation in the field of care and proposed a model to describe and discuss these processes based on the motivations of the several actors.
The remainder of the meeting was reserved for discussion in which the participants (representatives from knowledge institutions, municipalities, care cooperatives) talked about the success and failing factors in the cooperation between cooperatives and other organizations and searched for possible solutions.
For a detailed description of the meeting and the outcomes of the discussion rounds, please see .