Paul Lambert (cooperator)

Paul Lambert (21 February 1912 – 17 September 1977) was a Belgian cooperator and professor of economics at the University of Liège.^[1][2]

Paul Lambert
Born	(1912-02-21)21 February 1912
Died	17 September 1977(1977-09-17) (aged 65)
Education	University of Liège
Occupations	Economist Cooperator Writer
Organization	FEBECOOP CIRIEC International
Notable work	La Doctrine coopération (1959)
Movement	Cooperative movement

Lambert gained a doctorate in law from the University of Liège in 1935.^[3] When Belgium was invaded in 1940 by Nazi Germany Lambert was conscripted and subsequently spent five years as a prisoner of war, which he recounted in his 1946 book Hommes perdus à l’Est ("Men Lost in the East"). He returned to academia after the war, later becoming chair of political economy at the law faculty of the University of Liège.^[4]

In the 1950s Lambert was elected to the board of the Belgian Federation of Socialist Consumer Cooperatives (FEBECOOP) before becoming president of the federation.^[1]

In 1957 Lambert succeeded Edgard Milhaud as president of the International Center of Research and Information on the Public, Social and Cooperative Economy (CIRIEC International).^[3]

In 1959 he authored La Doctrine coopération, an influential overview and history of the ideas and the economics of the co-operative movement. The work was translated into English as Studies in the Social Philosophy of Co-operation (1963).

In 1962 he represented FEBECOOP on the central committee of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) and then in 1966 on the ICA's executive committee.^[1]

He died on 17 September 1977 from cancer.^[4]

Publications

• — (1946). Hommes perdus à l'Est (in French). Brussels: Dessart.
• — (1963). Studies in the Social Philosophy of Co-operation. Translated by Joseph Létargez. Co-operative Union.