A PATH FROM COMPETITION TO ASSOCIATION
4 Steps / 4 Criteria / Guidelines / The Colours of Money
Associative economics is based on the idea that economic life is the responsibility of every human being in collaboration with humanity as a whole. Proceeding from what we think and do, rather than by way of abstract forces, it is about making this responsibility conscious and finding ways to give it effect in practical life.
The property of the Associative Economics Association, the Mark was created on 29 September 1998, as a Quality Guarantee Mark (not a trade mark) to promote an associative approach to modern economic life by raising awareness of the economics not only of one’s own enterprise but also of the wider social and economic environment in which it exists.
Originally formally established in 38 countries, the Mark envisages a path from competition to association, along which individual entrepreneurs (in principle, everyone!) assume responsibility for the conduct of economic life, rather than governments, the state, banks, or abstract market forces.
Subject to its Criteria and Guidelines, the Mark is intended for self-audited and self-certified assessment of the ‘associativeness’ of an enterprise (including the self-employed and sole traders), regardless of its size, locality and domain of operation and whether agricultural, industrial, commercial, financial, governmental, humanitarian or cultural.