Prof. Carlo Borzaga, world-renown expert on the social economy and one of the founding members of EMES left us yesterday at the age of 75 after a serious illness. He is recognized as one of the “fathers” of the most significant Italian laws on social cooperation and organized volunteering. In early 2023 he was granted the honorary title of Commendatore dell’Ordine “Al Merito della Repubblica Italiana” from the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella. As we are still absorbing the news, we find a lot of peace in all the messages we receive, recognizing what he was for our network: a pillar. His contribution to the study and the institutionalization of the social economy in general and cooperatives and social enterprises in particular, both at the Italian and European levels, would be impossible to measure.
Our Network honoured him last year during the 9th EMES Conference in Frankfurt for his lifetime achievement in the SE field and his contribution to the EMES Network. He was a pioneer on various fronts and a great discussant. He loved the academy’s rigour, but as head of a cooperative launched in the 1970s, he also lived in first person the challenges facing practitioners. But he was also a strong ally for policymakers at all levels aiming to promote the social economy everywhere. He also headed some of the most groundbreaking studies on social enterprises at the EU level. He was an approachable and inspired teacher, and all the PhDs who met him after having cited him were impressed by his inspiring words, energy, and warmth. He was an active participant in all of the events organized by EMES and hosted the first international research conference of EMES in 2009 and the 2012 training school in Trento, where we will be returning in June.
The publication of “The emergence of social enterprise”, co-authored by his research and writing partner and dear friend Jacques Defourny, is considered the first scientific volume devoted to this now consolidated topic of research. He also created the first journal devoted to social enterprise in Italy, Impressa sociale, in 1990 in collaboration with the IRIS network. He was always attentive to maintaining the connection between academia and the rest of society, particularly practitioners and policymakers. Indeed, he encouraged that a cooperative representative umbrella organization, CECOP, was among the list of institutional and individual founding members of EMES.
Carlo was unique at analyzing complex things and explaining them in a straightforward manner. He was a character backed with a solid knowledge and conviction about a field that he loved. He cared about his people, his teams and his students. He cared immensely about EMES: his guidance, advice and vision where essential for the Coordination Unit and the network as an always-developing community of committed researchers. He served on the Board of Directors for eight years and then passed on the torch to her colleague, Giulia Galera, who has been re-elected twice by the EMES membership. It was wonderful to know that he was there and we did uniquely great things as a community: we will never forget him.
His teachings, contributions and human values will be remembered by the entire EMES community all over the world. We send condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. He was a man of action and we would like to share with you that during these past years, Carlo and his family grew deeply fond of the NeMO Clinical Center, a non-profit association focused on the needs of patients with neuromuscular and neurogenegerative diseases and their families. Research as the basis for health and wellbeing, something that we all know well as part of EMES. This is why you can contribute your own donation in his memory to NeMO, so they can continue caring for and accompanying people in this tough situation.
We are creating a “wall of condolences” where you can share your condolences and thoughts with the rest of the EMES community. If you are interested, please write to us at members@emes.net or join the conversation on the social media channels where EMES is present (Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn).