Co-responsibility

The term co-responsibility is used to communicate the notion of an assumed and shared responsibility between various persons. Its formation combines the prefix co– (to indicate a collaborate effort or action) with responsibility, whose origin reflects a sense of collective participation in both its action(s) and its consequence(s). The concept of responsibility, from which co-responsibility is derived, is utilized to name who is responsible for a particular act or takes charge of a given situation. Its etymology originates from the Latin responsum (response) and from the suffix –bilitas, which indicates ability. Therefore, its original meaning translates to the “ability to respond”, or be accountable, for one’s own actions.

Ethics and law have been the fields in which the use of the term responsibility and, by extension, co-responsibility have historically had great influence. In the realm of law, responsibility presupposes the idea of liberty and a transgression, by action or omission against a juridic norm, enforced by the coercive power of the State. Accordingly, legal co-respondability implies a shared responsibility for a violation of a juridic norm by actions or omissions that are also shared.

The use of the term has intensified greatly in the 20th and 21th centuries, in contexts such as law, education, and public policy, where it has acquired a wider meaning that now includes not only the distribution of labor, but also the active and coordinated commitment between various social actors. More recently, and associated with the private sphere, co-responsibility is manifested in the distribution of domestic labor, wherein all members assume a shared responsibility.

In the context of the commons, co-responsibility is understood as an ethics based on collaboration that displaces individualism and strengthens bonds, promoting the co-creation of shared responses to collective needs and challenges. In practice, collaboration is embodied by associations such as cooperatives, and in projects such as Red Ibérica de Eco-aldeas and La Tremenda. Co-responsibility, then, incorporates the concept of cooperation as a means for survival. In this century, it contrasts with notions such as hyperindividualism and late-stage capitalism. From an ecofeminist perspective, co-responsibility considers the experience of the social collective in relation to the natural world and recognizes that people are cohabitants with an obligation toward ecological conservation.

In essence, co-responsibility is both a model and an ethics. In short, co-responsibility can be thought of as a distribution of burdens in different spheres. While the legal sphere has wrought a negative connotation to the concept of co-responsibility, when applied to the commons the term is associated, even while evoking a shared burden, with the potential to overcome individualism and isolationism and becomes, in some way, a positive experience.

Referencias:

García, Manuel. “Corresponsabilidad: un concepto clave en la transformación del mundo laboral”. LawAndTrends, 17 feb. 2021, https://www.lawandtrends.com/noticias/laboral/corresponsabilidad-un-concepto-clave-en-la-transformacion-del-mundo-1.html.

“Un nuevo concepto de corresponsabilidad: más allá del reparto de tareas”. ACCIONA People, 23 mar. 2021, https://people.acciona.com/es/cultura-organizacional/un-nuevo-concepto-de-corresponsabilidad-mas-alla-del-reparto-de-tareas.

Ballester Pastor, María Amparo. “La era de la corresponsabilidad: los nuevos retos de la política antidiscriminatoria”. Lan Harremanak – Revista de Relaciones Laborales, núm. 24, 2011, pp. 53-77, https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=4258962.

Authors of the post:

Anabel Cardoza, Yomary Carrillo Tequia, Carolina Cassese De Vasconcellos Serelle, Patricio D’Acunti, Giuliana Da Veiga, Denisse Mendoza Jaimes, Sebastián Molina, Judith Moore, Yatzary Sinai Soria, Rodrigo Zavala-Cintora, Ofelia Ferrán.