A cooperative (also co-operative; often referred to as a co-op) is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit.[1] Cooperatives are defined by the International Co-operative Alliance's The International Co-operative Alliance is a non-governmental co-operative federation or, more precisely, a co-operative union representing co-operatives and the co-operative movement worldwide. It was founded in 1895 as a result of actions by Edward Vansittart Neale and the Christian Socialists. The ICA maintains the currently accepted version of Statement on the Co-operative Identity The Statement on the Co-operative Identity, promulgated by the International Co-operative Alliance , defines and guides co-operatives worldwide. It contains the definition of a co-operative as a special form of organization, the values of co-operatives, and the currently accepted cooperative principles that direct their behavior and operation. The as autonomous associations In the subfield of Sociology called Sociology of knowledge, controversy over the boundaries of autonomy stopped at the concept of relative autonomy , until a typology of autonomy was created and developed within science and technology studies (MARANHÃO, 2005; 2006; 2007; SOBRAL & MARANHÃO, 2008). According to it, the contemporary form of of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprises A business is a legally recognized organization designed to provide goods or services, or both, to consumers, businesses and governmental entities. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies. Most businesses are privately owned. A business is typically formed to earn profit that will increase the wealth of its owners and grow the business.[2] A cooperative may also be defined as a business owned and controlled equally by the people who use its services or by the people who work there. Cooperative enterprises are the focus of study in the field of cooperative economics Co-operative economics is a field of economics, socialist economics, co-operative studies, and political economy, which is concerned with co-operatives.
The Cloyne Court Hotel The Cloyne Court Hotel, often referred to simply as Cloyne, is a student housing cooperative at 2600 Ridge Road in Berkeley, California on the north side of the University of California, Berkeley campus, on Ridge Road at Leroy Avenue. It is part of the Berkeley Student Cooperative system. Residents of the house are known as "Clones".[, a student housing cooperative A student housing cooperative, also known as co-operative housing, is a housing cooperative for students in an educational institution in Berkeley, California Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington. The eastern city limits coincide with the county line (bordering Contra Costa County), which, United States. Consumers' cooperative A consumers' cooperative is a cooperative business owned by its customers for their mutual benefit. It is a form of free enterprise that is oriented toward service rather than pecuniary profit. Consumers' cooperatives often take the form of retail outlets owned and operated by their consumers. The customers or consumers of the goods and/or shops in the UK formed the world's first mass cooperative movement
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Origins
Main article: History of the cooperative movement The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement began with the application of cooperative principles to business organizationCooperation dates back as far as human beings have been organising for mutual benefit. Tribes were organised as cooperative structures, allocating jobs and resources among each other, only trading with the external communities. Post-industrial Europe is home to the first co-operatives from an industrial context.
Robert Owen Robert Owen , (born in Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Wales), was a social reformer and one of the founders of socialism and the cooperative movement (1771 - 1858) was a social reformer and a pioneer of the cooperative movement.In 1761, the Fenwick Weavers' Society The Fenwick Weavers' Society was a professional association created in the village of Fenwick, East Ayrshire, Scotland in 1761. In 1769, the society formed a consumer co-operative for the benefit of members in 1769. The original purpose of the society was to foster high standards in the weaving craft, but activities later expanded to include was formed in Fenwick Fenwick is a village in East Ayrshire, Scotland, UK. As of 2001, its population was 863, East Ayrshire East Ayrshire is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders on to North Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire, South Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway. With South Ayrshire and the mainland areas of North Ayrshire, it formed the former county of Ayrshire, Scotland Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the southwest. In addition to the mainland, Scotland to sell discounted The can occur anywhere in the distribution channel, modifying either the manufacturer's list price , the retail price (set by the retailer and often attached to the product with a sticker), or the list price (which is quoted to a potential buyer, usually in written form) oatmeal Oatmeal is ground oat groats , or a porridge made from oats (also called oatmeal cereal or stirabout, in Ireland). Oatmeal can also be ground oat, steel-cut oats, crushed oats, or rolled oats to local workers.[3] Its services expanded to include assistance with savings and loans, emigration and education. In 1810, Welsh Bretons, Cornish, Manx, Scottish, Ulster-Scots, Irish social reformer A reform movement is a kind of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of society, rather than rapid or fundamental changes. A reform movement is distinguished from more radical social movements such as revolutionary movements Robert Owen Robert Owen , (born in Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Wales), was a social reformer and one of the founders of socialism and the cooperative movement, from Newtown in mid-Wales Wales ( /ˈweɪlz/ Welsh: Cymru; pronounced [ˈkəmrɨ] (help·info)) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. Wales has a population estimated at three million and is officially bilingual; the indigenous Welsh language and English have equal status, and, and his partners purchased New Lanark New Lanark is a village on the River Clyde, approximately 1.4 miles from Lanark, in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It was founded in 1786 by David Dale, who built cotton mills and housing for the mill workers. Dale built the mills there to take advantage of the water power provided by the river. Under the ownership of a partnership that included mill from Owen's father-in-law David Dale David Dale was a Scottish merchant and businessman, famous for establishing the influential weaving community of New Lanark and proceeded to introduce better labor standards including discounted retail shops where profits were passed on to his employees. Owen left New Lanark to pursue other forms of co-operative organization and develop co-op ideas through writing and lecture. Co-operative communities were set up in Glasgow Glasgow (pronounced /ˈɡlæzɡoʊ/ ; Scots: Glesga Scottish Gaelic: Glaschu) is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands. A person from Glasgow is known as a Glaswegian, which is also the name of the local dialect, Indiana Indianapolis home to several major sports teams and athletic events including the NFL's Indianapolis Colts, the NBA's Indiana Pacers, the Indianapolis 500 motorsports race. Indiana has several metropolitan areas with populations greater than 100,000 and a number of smaller industrial cities and towns. The state has several well-known colleges and Hampshire Today, Hampshire is a popular holiday area. Its tourist attractions include many seaside resorts, the motor museum at Beaulieu, with national parks in both New Forest and the South Downs . Hampshire has a long maritime history and two of England's largest ports, Southampton and Portsmouth, lie on its coast. The county is famed as home of such, although ultimately unsuccessful. In 1828, William King Dr. William King was a British physician and philanthropist from Brighton. He is best known as an early supporter of the Cooperative Movement set up a newspaper, The Cooperator, to promote Owen's thinking, having already set up a co-operative store in Brighton Brighton (pronounced /ˈbraɪtən/ ) is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove (formed from the previous towns of Brighton, Hove, Portslade and several other villages) in East Sussex on the south coast of Great Britain. For administrative purposes, Brighton and Hove is not part of the non-metropolitan county of East Sussex, but remains.
The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, founded in 1844, was an early consumer co-operative, and the first to pay a patronage dividend, forming the basis for the modern co-operative movement. Although other cooperatives preceded them, the Rochdale Pioneers' co-operative became the prototype for societies in Great Britain. The Rochdale Pioneers, founded in 1844, is usually considered the first successful co-operative enterprise, used as a model for modern co-ops, following the 'Rochdale Principles The Rochdale Principles are a set of ideals for the operation of cooperatives. They were first set out by the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in Rochdale, England, in 1844, and have formed the basis for the principles on which co-operatives around the world operate to this day. The implications of the Rochdale Principles are a focus of'. A group of 28 weavers and other artisans in Rochdale Rochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, 5.3 miles north-northwest of Oldham, and 9.8 miles (15.8 km) north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, of, England The area now called England has been settled by people of various cultures for about 35,000 years, but it takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in AD 927, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant set up the society to open their own store selling food items they could not otherwise afford. Within ten years there were over 1,000 co-operative societies in the United Kingdom.
Other events such as the founding of a friendly society A friendly society is a mutual association for insurance, pensions or savings and loan-like purposes, or cooperative banking. Some friendly societies, especially in the past, served ceremonial and friendship purposes also, while others did not. It is a mutual organization or benefit society composed of a body of people who join together for a by the Tolpuddle Martyrs The Tolpuddle Martyrs were a group of 19th century English agricultural labourers who were arrested for and convicted of swearing a secret oath as members of the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers. The rules of the society show it was clearly structured as a friendly society and operated as a trade-specific benefit society. But at the time, in 1832 were key occasions in the creation of organized labor and consumer movements.
Social economy
In the final year of the 20th century, cooperatives banded together to establish a number of social enterprise Social enterprises are social mission driven organizations which apply market-based strategies to achieve a social purpose. The movement includes both non-profits that use business models to pursue their mission and for-profits whose primary purposes are social. Their aim – to accomplish targets that are social and/or environmental as well as agencies which have moved to adopt the multi-stakeholder cooperative model.[4][5] In the last 15 years (1994–2009) the EU The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 member states which are located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993 upon the foundations of the European Communities. With over 500 million citizens, the EU combined generated an estimated 28% share (US$ 16.5 and its member nations, have gradually revised national accounting systems to "make visible" the increasing contribution of social economy Social economy refers to a third sector in economies between the private sector and business or, the public sector and government. It includes organisations such as cooperatives, non-governmental organisations and charities organizations.[6]
Organizational and ideological roots
The roots of the cooperative movement can be traced to multiple influences and extend worldwide. In the Anglosphere Anglosphere is a term with conflicting meanings. For some, the Anglosphere is just those set of nations with English as the most common language. For many others, it is a set of nations which share an "English-like" character and culture, particularly including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and New, post-feudal Feudalism is a political and military system between a feudal aristocracy , and his vassals. In its most classic sense, feudalism refers to the Medieval European political system composed of a set of reciprocal legal and military obligations among the warrior nobility, revolving around the three key concepts of lords, vassals, and fiefs. Although forms of cooperation between workers and owners, that are expressed today as "profit-sharing" and "surplus sharing" arrangements, existed as far back as 1795.[7] The key ideological influence on the Anglosphere branch of the cooperative movement, however, was a rejection of the charity The word "charity" entered the English language through the Old French word "charité" which was derived from the Latin "caritas" principles that underpinned welfare Welfare or welfare work consists of actions or procedures — especially on the part of governments and institutions — striving to promote the basic well-being of individuals in need. These efforts usually strive to improve the financial situation of people in need but may also strive to improve their employment chances and many other aspects of reforms when the British government Her Majesty's Government is the central government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Under the unwritten British constitution, executive authority notionally lies with the monarch but is exercised only by and on the advice of the Cabinet, a collective body of the most senior ministers of the Crown, who are appointed radically revised its Poor Laws The English Poor Laws were a system of poor relief which existed in England and Wales that developed out of late medieval and Tudor laws before being codified in 1587–98. The Poor Law system was in existence until to the emergence of the modern welfare state after the Second World War in 1834. As both state and church institutions began to routinely distinguish between the 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor, a movement of friendly societies A friendly society is a mutual association for insurance, pensions or savings and loan-like purposes, or cooperative banking. Some friendly societies, especially in the past, served ceremonial and friendship purposes also, while others did not. It is a mutual organization or benefit society composed of a body of people who join together for a grew throughout the British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was the largest empire in history and, for over a based on the principle of mutuality, committed to self-help in the welfare of working people.
Friendly Societies established forums through which one member, one vote was practiced in organisation decision-making. The principles challenged the idea that a person should be an owner of property Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of persons. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property has the right to consume, sell, rent, mortgage, transfer, exchange or destroy their property, and/or to exclude others from doing these things. Important widely recognized types of before being granted a political voice.[4] Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century (and then repeatedly every 20 years or so) there has been a surge in the number of cooperative organisations, both in commercial practice and civil society, operating to advance democracy Democracy is a political form of government where governing power is derived from the people, either by direct referendum or by means of elected representatives of the people (representative democracy). The term comes from the Greek: δημοκρατία – (dēmokratía) "rule of the people", which was coined from δῆμος (dêmos) & and universal suffrage Universal suffrage consists of the extension of the right to vote to adult citizens (or subjects) as a whole, though it may also mean extending said right to minors and non-citizens. Although suffrage has two necessary components, the right to vote and opportunities to vote, the term universal suffrage is associated only with the right to vote and as a political principle.[8] Friendly Societies and consumer cooperatives became the dominant form of organization amongst working people in Anglosphere industrial societies In sociology, industrial society refers to a society with a modern societal structure. Such a structure developed in the west in the period of time following the industrial revolution. Pre-modern, or Pre-industrial society are also called agrarian societies. Industrial societies are generally mass societies prior to the rise of trade unions A trade union or labor union (American English) is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members (rank and file members) and negotiates labor contracts (collective bargaining) with and industrial factories. Weinbren reports that by the end of the 19th century, over 80% of British working age men and 90% of Australian working age men were members of one or more Friendly Society.[9]
From the mid-nineteenth century, mutual organisations embraced these ideas in economic enterprises, firstly amongst tradespeople, and later in cooperative stores, educational institutes, financial institutions and industrial enterprises. The common thread (enacted in different ways, and subject to the constraints of various systems of national law) is the principle that an enterprise or association should be owned and controlled by the people it serves, and share any surpluses on the basis of each members' cooperative contribution (as a producer, labourer or consumer) rather than their capacity to invest financial capital.[10]
The cooperative movement has been fueled globally by ideas of economic democracy. Economic democracy is a socioeconomic philosophy that suggests an expansion of decision-making power from a small minority of corporate shareholders to a larger majority of public stakeholders. There are many different approaches to thinking about and building economic democracy. Both Marxism and anarchism, for example, have been influenced by utopian socialism, which was based on voluntary cooperation, without recognition of class conflict. Anarchists are committed to libertarian socialism and they have focused on local organization, including locally managed cooperatives, linked through confederations of unions, cooperatives and communities. Marxists, who as socialists have likewise held and worked for the goal of democratizing productive and reproductive relationships, often placed a greater strategic emphasis on confronting the larger scales of human organization. As they viewed the capitalist class to be prohibitively politically, militarily and culturally mobilized in order to maintain an exploitable working class, they fought in the early twentieth century to appropriate from the capitalist class the society's collective political capacity in the form of the state, either through democratic socialism, or through what came to be known as Leninism. Though they regard the state as an unnecessarily oppressive institution, Marxists considered appropriating national and international-scale capitalist institutions and resources (such as the state) to be an important first pillar in creating conditions favorable to solidaristic economies.[11][12] With the declining influence of the USSR after the 1960s, socialist strategies pluralized, though economic democratizers have not as yet established a fundamental challenge to the hegemony of global neoliberal capitalism.
Meaning
Cooperatives as legal entities
A cooperative is a legal entity owned and democratically controlled by its members. Members often have a close association with the enterprise as producers or consumers of its products or services, or as its employees.
In some countries, e.g. Finland and Sweden, there are specific forms of incorporation for co-operatives. Cooperatives may take the form of companies limited by shares or by guarantee, partnerships or unincorporated associations. In the USA, cooperatives are often organized as non-capital stock corporations under state-specific cooperative laws. However, they may also be unincorporated associations or business corporations such as limited liability companies or partnerships; such forms are useful when the members want to allow:
- some members to have a greater share of the control, or
- some investors to have a return on their capital that exceeds fixed interest,
neither of which may be allowed under local laws for cooperatives. Cooperatives often share their earnings with the membership as dividends, which are divided among the members according to their participation in the enterprise, such as patronage, instead of according to the value of their capital shareholdings (as is done by a joint stock company).
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Wed, 11 Aug 2010 06:49:38 GMT+00:00
Montreal Gazette The festival has been organized by local farms, including Ferme Cooperative Tourne-Sol, Ferme Carya, Ferme Joly, Prucheraie, and Caieux de St.-St.-Georges. ...
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facilities with which to wash themselves no place to eat or sleep Entire families had to squeeze into cramped quarters Formerly well to do citizens descended into the pit of poverty The ravished Cooperative Bank founded 1901 A writer later described the shouting blood cur dling screeches and bitter arguments contaminating the air Little annoyances provoked
US Magazine Team
ue, 20 Jul 2010 17:44:46 GM
"Everything is going smoothly," says LA sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.
Q. We are looking for a 3 player game, similar to Army of 2, but for 3 players, which we can complete in a night. Any suggestions?
Asked by Dan M - Tue Jan 20 09:42:38 2009 - - 5 Answers - 0 Comments
A. hmm that's a tough one. It depends on what you're into as well. cod4 you can play multiplayer although you're against each other. I have marvel: ultimate alliance which can have up 2 4 player co op and doesn't take long to complete.
Answered by Dave P - Tue Jan 20 09:59:14 2009
