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Giuseppe Guerini<\/p>\nAs the co-op movement looks to scale up in response to the challenges of the 21st century, awareness and understanding of the model takes on new importance \u2013 an issue which takes in the thorny question of how a co-op should actually be defined.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These fundamental questions of the movement were a key theme to the recent conference of the UK Society for Co-operative Studies (UKSCS), held in Birmingham, with contributions from sector leaders and academics who dug into the history and ethos of the co-operation.<\/p>\n
Co-ops and the EU<\/p>\n
The context for this academic debate was set out in an opening keynote from Giuseppe Guerini, president of Cooperatives Europe, who summed the up the case for co-ops as a mechanism for delivering fairer systems in food, housing, social care, energy and the digital economy, arguing: \u201cWe cannot imagine solving market failure using the same market procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an argument often made at co-operative events \u2013 but is less familiar outside the movement.<\/p>\n
Giuseppe Guerini<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need education and training to grow the social economy,\u201d said Guerini, arguing that co-operatives themselves have a responsibility to deliver this. Asked by an audience member why co-ops are not at the top table of policy making, he said: \u201cCo-ops do not invest enough in creating knowledge to share with business schools.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the Covid-19 pandemic bringing a paradigm shift in favour of state action, there are opportunities to gain government support \u2013\u00a0with the various national co-op sectors needing a more favourable environment for startups, better access to finance and modernised legal frameworks.<\/p>\n
To that end, Cooperatives Europe is lobbying for better regulation of public procurement, competition, finance and investment, he said. For instance, in the procurement market, EU public tendering ignores social value and goes for the lowest bidder \u2013 something Cooperatives Europe is looking to change.<\/p>\n
How to work with business schools?<\/p>\n
Guerini\u2019s speech was followed by a panel session which looked at the importance of co-operative education and research in growing the movement. While business schools may be reluctant to teach about co-ops, students are still receptive to the message: Dr Anita Mangan, from the Department of Management at the University of Bristol, said that her students were interested to learn about co-ops and workplace democracy.<\/p>\n
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Anita Mangan<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of students wanted to be doing English or whatever,\u201d she said, \u201cbut their parents told them they wouldn\u2019t get job with that, so they\u2019re doing business studies and they\u2019re bored \u2013 so teaching them about something alternative like co-ops gets their interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her colleague Martin Parker \u2013 author of education critique Shut Down the Business School<\/a> \u2013 added that business schools are \u201can important pressure point\u201d in shaping the economy, with one in seven UK students taking business studies.<\/p>\n \u201cWe see the markets as something like the weather, we think you can\u2019t do much about them,\u201d he said, \u201cbut the market is something you can shape.\u201d<\/p>\n That reshaping is harder when most business schools just teach growth, markets and corporates, Martin added. Another problem is that business schools themselves are market-driven, and looking to pull in students and generate income, while academics pursue big grants and high profile publications. In that context, co-op education is seen as too niche.<\/p>\n Related: Symposium looks for ways to energise the co-op brand<\/a><\/p>\n But there are problems on the co-op side, he warned. \u201cMost co-ops are not interested enough in education globally, and are suspicious of business schools \u2026 there are some pretty big walls that need to be jumped over.\u201d<\/p>\n Francesca Gagliardi, a reader in institutional economics at the University of Hertfordshire, noted a recent shift from studying co-ops as a legal and historic form to looking at them as engines for social transformation, and called for closer relationships between co-ops and academia. She highlighted the UK retail co-op movement\u2019s efforts to secure new laws on assaults against store workers<\/a>, and the Co-op Group\u2019s Hate Divides Communities, Co-operation Builds Them<\/a> campaign, as examples of how co-ops can push for change.<\/p>\n For Martin, the starting point in education should be discussing the need for change, before moving on to co-ops as an answer. \u201cTalk about the climate challenge,\u201d he said. \u201cStudents see the problem, so we need to talk to them about alternatives to the inexorable environmental impact of a type of capitalism.\u201d<\/p>\n Double trouble<\/p>\n As Guerini noted in his speech, education is not the only route to co-op growth; there is also state action. In the UK, Keir Starmer\u2019s government has pledged to double the size of the co-op movement; two years in, James Wright, policy and development lead at Co-operatives UK, shared his impression on how this is progressing.<\/p>\n Noting that the government \u201cdidn\u2019t define what doubling was, set a time scale or say why they were doing it,\u201d Wright said a lot of work has been done within the co-op sector and within government to interpret the policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Related: Doubling the size \u2013 hit, miss or maybe?<\/a><\/p>\n It should definitely mean significantly increasing the number of co-ops and mutuals, added Wright, but should also involve a growth in economic and social impact.<\/p>\n He warned that co-op growth has been \u201cpretty static\u201d in recent years, but there progress in housing co-ops, community business, and worker co-ops in the creative and digital industries. A policy to double the movement should build on this and put in the right conditions for co-op growth.<\/p>\n One way to do this, Wright argued, is to integrate the double agenda into other government policies \u2013 for instance in energy and retrofit, in tackling market failures in housing, and in food policy.<\/p>\n Enabling action is needed from the government on access to finance, modernising the legal framework and tax reform, he added. Meanwhile, there are not enough development agencies or secondary co-ops, and new pathways are needed for businesses looking to transition to co-op ownership.<\/p>\n In terms of what has actually been done, the picture is mixed, said Wright, welcoming the Pride in Place programme, right to buy provisions, investment in community energy under the Local Power Plan<\/a>, a \u00a330m investment in credit unions from dormant assets, and planned reforms of co-op law, including commitments to improve the Mutuals Register and moves to allow the development of credit union service organisations.<\/p>\n Related: How do you give away power? The tricky question for Pride in Place<\/a><\/p>\n But the Law Commission review has been delayed, and there is room for improvement in other areas, said Wright. There are \u201cgood words\u201d in local growth plans, he told the conference, but \u201cthe timescale for turning those words into concrete action is maybe a bit of a concern.\u201d<\/p>\n In agriculture, Defra has a \u00a330m farmer collaboration fund in place but is \u201ccurrently fixated on small, finite collaboration projects, not on long-term co-operative structures\u201d.<\/p>\n And worryingly, there is \u201can immediate crisis\u201d in co-op development work, with a 60% drop in funding in 2026 compared to 2024 for co-op development agencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf they can\u2019t earn a living at it, they\u2019ll stop doing it,\u201d said Wright, noting that expert advice will be needed for communities taking part in Pride of Place.<\/p>\n He also criticised the lack of support for co-ops from the British Business Bank.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re at that point where there\u2019s a risk of inertia in the system,\u201d he said. \u201cJust coming in and saying they\u2019ll do something and writing a lot of policy papers isn\u2019t enough. A lot more political will and direction will be required. We\u2019ve done the constructive behind the scenes stuff, we need to push now.\u201d<\/p>\n Related: Funding crisis stops Barefoot co-op training in its tracks<\/a><\/p>\n Identity crisis?<\/p>\n The second keynote of the conference was delivered by Dominic Kendal-Ward, general counsel of the Co-op Group, who \u2013 stressing that he was speaking in a personal capacity, and making a \u201cprovocation\u201d to spark discussion \u2013 warned against \u201cinsularity\u201d and purist thinking in the co-op movement if it wants to go mainstream.<\/p>\n With the world looking for answers to its mounting problems, and a window of government support in the UK that may close at the next general election, Kendal-Ward warned that \u201cwe need to show now we have the ability to create real outcomes\u201d.<\/p>\n It is not enough for movement to just ask for resources, he said. \u201cWe need to come knowing what problems we want to solve, what our solution is, and the role co-ops play in that.\u201d<\/p>\n This goes back to the question of defining the movement, with Kendal-Ward stressing the importance of membership. \u201cWe do a lot of work on this but the truth is there is a low public understanding \u2026 People have a warm fluffy feeling or a memory of Co-op stamps but it\u2019s not based on the fact we are member-owned.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we can first get people to understand how we can solve their daily problems and work backwards from that \u2026 that, for me, shows us a better way of communicating this.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, there is a \u201crisk of insularity\u201d, said Kendal-Ward. Principle 6 \u2013 co-operation among co-ops \u2013 remains important, he argued, but should not be exclusive. \u201cAre we inside the tent or outside it? We need to recognise there are good things about Plcs, the public sector, charities.\u201d<\/p>\n There have long been partnerships between public and private sector, he noted, but \u201cyou don\u2019t often see co-ops as part of that. When you see water companies not doing a good job, and problems with the national infrastructure, there are solutions to that. Co-ops have a part to play but with the financial and regulatory barriers we face, we need to partner outside the movement to deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n For Kendal-Ward, the \u201cflexibility\u201d of the co-op form is a strength. \u201cIt\u2019s a broad model \u2013 from tiny worker co-ops to big agricultural and retail co-operatives.\u201d<\/p>\n He warned against pushing for a restrictive legal definition of the co-op model. \u201cAs somebody who grew up on company law \u2013 it comes in a massive book. Co-op legislation, you can read in an hour. Be careful what you wish for because our legal system is permissive. That big book on company law is a list of restrictions; for co-ops, our list of restrictions is tiny.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1778507922574-1024x683.jpeg\")
Dominc Kendal-Ward<\/p>\n
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Tiziana O\u2019Hara<\/p>\n