The social entrepreneur's handbook: co-operatives

The final excerpt from The Social Entrepreneur's Handbook by Rupert Scofield. This week: co-operatives

Spokespeople for the co-operative movement make much these days of the fact that, as a sector, it survived the financial crisis of 2008 in much better shape than many of its private sector counterparts. The reason is that, with few exceptions, co-operatives did not speculate with the assets of their owners as private sector financial institutions did.

The fact they did not has to do with the ownership structure of the co-operative model, which is spread among the customers rather than in the hands of profit-maximising private investors. The not-too-subtle subtext is that the global economy could do worse than pattern itself on this alternative economic model.

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