Worker cooperatives in an alien world

Abstract

I have worked at the Open University for a number of years. First with a small research unit which has been involved in doing research on cooperatives particularly worker cooperatives. A few years ago I moved faculties with in the University to the School of Management where I have been involved in setting up a management programme for people working in what we call voluntary and non-profit organisations,or what is sometimes called the social economy. So my interests have broadened out slightly but I still think that the ideas I have been working with are very much relevant to cooperatives. The title ofmy presentation is about cooperatives in an alien world and I think that perhaps the world is even more alien for worker cooperatives. It is actually a more difficult world to survive in. What I want to argue is, because of this there are various barriers both to the formation of worker cooperatives and to their development. If you are hoping to be successful at developing cooperatives then I think you need to understand what those barriers are. So I will talk about some of the barriers both to formation and development and then go on to say brief1y what are some of the things that can be done to overcome them. Certainly I don't pretend to have all the answers but I can at least suggest a broad framework. To start with, I will brief1y introduce the worker cooperative sector in the United Kingdom. Worker cooperatives historically have tended to come in waves. The most recent wave in the United Kingdom really started to take off in the late 1960's and early 1970's. We need not dwell too much on this but we have mapped this sort of growth in the formation of cooperatives over that kind of time frame. By the mid 1970's there were about a 100 worker cooperatives. The number then peaked by about 1988 to 1400 worker cooperatives. This number has now declined slightIy and I might suggest later on why it has declined.