CLAUDIA SANCHEZ BAJO has a PhD in development studies (ISS, The Hague). She is Chair in Co-perative Enterprises within the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Winnipeg, Canada. She has lectured in The Netherlands, Germany, China and Latin America. She has published The Political Economy of Regionalism – Business Actors in Mercosur in the Petrochemical and Steel Industrial Sectors (2001), and contributed to The Political Economy of Regions and Regionalisms (2005).   BRUNO ROELANTS has a Master's in labor studies. He is Secretary General of CICOPA, the sectoral organization of the International Cooperative Alliance for industrial and service coperatives. He has worked on development projects in China, India and Eastern Europe, and coordinated the cooperative negotiating group on ILO Recommendation 193 on the Promotion of Cooperatives. He has lectured on cooperatives and local development in Italy and is co-author of Cooperatives, Territories and Jobs (2011).