After decades of flying under the radar, co-operation as a principle of business and socio-economic organisation is moving from the margins of political thought into the mainstream. Following the 2008 financial crisis, the consequences of resource inequalities at local and global levels have become more apparent to political leaders and the public at large, leading to a renewal of interest in the international co-operative movement, which today includes nearly one billion co-operative members worldwide.
In the West, declining trust in the investor-led business model and the need to bolster communal responses to local economic and social problems has prompted co-operative organisations to step into the gap left by retreating state actors. In both the developed and developing world, co-operative models are increasingly viewed as central to tackling a diverse array of issues, including global food security, climate change, sustainable economic development, public-service provision and gender inequality.
This collection, drawing together research from an interdisciplinary group of scholars and co-operative practitioners, considers the different spheres in which co-operatives are becoming more prominent. It traces the margins and mainstreams of the co-operative movement itself, providing new insights into interactions between co-operative stakeholders and their impact on co-operative thought and practice. Drawing examples from different national and international contexts, the book offers major insights into how co-operation will come to occupy a central role in social and economic life in the twenty-first century.
Mainstreaming co-operation will be of interest to students and academics in economics, business studies, history, politics and international development, but also to policy makers interested in co-operatives and mutuals as a viable alternative to conventional models of social and economic development.
After decades of flying under the radar, co-operation as a principle of business and socio-economic organisation is moving from the margins of political thought into the mainstream. Following the 2008 financial crisis, the consequences of resource inequalities at local and global levels have become more apparent to political leaders and the public at large, leading to a renewal of interest in the international co-operative movement, which today includes nearly one billion co-operative members worldwide.
In the West, declining trust in the investor-led business model and the need to bolster communal responses to local economic and social problems has prompted co-operative organisations to step into the gap left by retreating state actors. In both the developed and developing world, co-operative models are increasingly viewed as central to tackling a diverse array of issues, including global food security, climate change, sustainable economic development, public-service provision and gender inequality.
This collection, drawing together research from an interdisciplinary group of scholars and co-operative practitioners, considers the different spheres in which co-operatives are becoming more prominent. It traces the margins and mainstreams of the co-operative movement itself, providing new insights into interactions between co-operative stakeholders and their impact on co-operative thought and practice. Drawing examples from different national and international contexts, the book offers major insights into how co-operation will come to occupy a central role in social and economic life in the twenty-first century.
Mainstreaming co-operation will be of interest to students and academics in economics, business studies, history, politics and international development, but also to policy makers interested in co-operatives and mutuals as a viable alternative to conventional models of social and economic development.
Introduction - Anthony Webster, Linda Shaw and Rachael
Vorberg-Rugh
1. Mainstreaming co-operatives after the global financial crisis -
Claudia Sanchez Bajo and Bruno Roelants
2. Our agencies: persuasion and the value of a concept to
mainstreaming co-operation - Philip Grant
3. G. J. Holyoake (1807-1906): a resource for a journey of hope? -
Stephen Yeo
4. History, citizenship and co-operative education, c. 1895-1930 -
Keith Vernon
5. 'The unit of the co-operative movement...is a woman': gender and
the development of the co-operative business model in Britain -
Rachael Vorberg-Rugh
6. A continuing challenge: women and leadership in co-operatives -
Barbara Rawlings and Linda Shaw
7. The wasted years? The Co-operative Party during the 1930s -
Angela Whitecross
8. New models of ownership and governance - Cliff Mills and Ruth
Yeoman
9. Co-operatives in health care: global prospects for the
development of co-operatives as instruments of consumer-centred
health care - Vern Hughes
10. Rising numbers of architectural co-operatives in an uncertain
construction economy - Stephen McCusker
11. Co-operatives and climate protection: housing co-operatives in
Germany - Carolin Schröder and Heike Walk
12. The co-operative identity: good for poverty reduction? -
Rowshan Hannan
13. What do we really know about workers' co-operatives? - Virginie
Pérotin
14.The impact of the co-operative ethos on the creation of shared
value: a case study of Lincolnshire Co-operative Society - Phil
Considine and Martin Hingley
15. Learning to swim against the tide: crises and co-operative
credibility - some international and historical examples - Anthony
Webster, Linda Shaw, Rachael Vorberg-Rugh, John F. Wilson and Ian
Snaith
Index
Anthony Webster is Professor in History at Northumbria
University
Linda Shaw was Vice-Principal at the Co-operative College and is
Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Open University
Rachael Vorberg-Rugh is an independent scholar
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