Characteristics

• Giving priority to social and educational aspects. The prioritisation of Lanki’s lines of research is based on the perception of the importance of activating the educational side of the Mondragón Co-operative Experience and bringing the practical reflection on its social dimensions up to date. Added to this there is also research into interco-operation for development and the legal side of the co-operative movement.
• The central importance of self-management in terms of reflection. Lanki works on self-management as a broad paradigm that ranges from the method of organisation at the micro level, to a social project based on autonomy, on people’s decision making capability.
• Interdisciplinary nature. Lanki tackles the co-operative and self-management movement, by trying to combine co-operative thought with the contributions of different social sciences like sociology, philosophy, pedagogy, psychology and law.
• Youth. Lanki is a young institute (set up in 2000) and gives priority to the incubation process. An open form of training for its members, mainly young people, is essential, as a basis for offering a transformation service.
• Combination of autonomy and links with co-operative agents of the Mondragón Co-operative Experience. Lanki carries out its work on the basis of the reflective autonomy necessary to be able to provide critical knowledge about the co-operative movement. However, as it is part of the MCC co-operative framework, it works to establish continuous links with those involved in the co-operative movement, for two reasons: a) its basic desire to provide a service to the co-operative agents and b) the need to count on those involved to carry out quality reflection and research.
• Dealing with language: multilingualism based on Basque. Lanki works mainly in the Basque language, with most of what it produces appearing in that language. Spanish is also an important working language and English is in third place as an international vehicle for the website and in some of its publications.
• An institute open to international relations connected to its lines of research. Co-operation for co-operative development in the southern hemisphere is a special field related to one of the lines of research.