Bio
Mario De Conto is PhD in Law, lawyer, and Professor of Cooperative Law, and director of the Co-operative Faculty of Technology (ESCOOP) in Brazil. Mario is interested in the worldwide legal environment for cooperatives, conducting studies in comparative law. Since 2017, he is conducting studies about innovation in cooperatives, in particular about a suitable legal environment for platform cooperatives. In 2018, the research project ‘Platform Cooperatives and the Legal Environment’, coordinated by Mario, was selected following a call by the Brazilian National Research Council and the Brazilian Service of Learning about Cooperativism. The general purpose of the project is to analyze the drivers and restrictive factors to the development of a platform for cooperatives in the Brazilian legal system, proposing measures for its development. Today, Mario is working with a group of researchers from several countries in the execution of this project.