Journal of Co-operative Studies 65, 5-10
Where have co-operative values gone?
Where have co-operative values gone?
T.N. Bottomley
Journal of Co-operative Studies, No. 66, pp. 5-10
Abstract
This articles reports on the experiences of the local Co-op in Trowbridge; its early years and the dominance of the Society to the demise of local co-ops like the Trowbridge and the creation of larger regional Societies and Co-operative Retail Services. The author bemoans the loss of engagement and community suggesting that a people's enterprise, by definition, has to belong, and be felt to belong, to the people engaged in it and that we somehow forgot or ignored that Co-ops are founded in community, in neighbourhoods, and draw their strength from the solidarity of community and a common sense of purpose between neighbours. Concluding that the Co-operative leadership selected a commercial rather than a co-operative solution, the paper ends with the question: is there a way forward?
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