A cooperative is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-controlled enterprise". Cooperatives are democratically controlled by their members, with each member having one vote in electing the board of directors. Cooperatives may include:
The Women's Institute (WI) is a community-based organization for women in the United Kingdom, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. The movement was founded in Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada, by Erland and Janet Lee with Adelaide Hoodless being the first speaker in 1897. It was based on the British concept of Women's Guilds, created by Rev Archibald Charteris in 1887 and originally confined to the Church of Scotland. From Canada the organization spread back to the motherland, throughout the British Empire and Commonwealth, and thence to other countries. Many WIs belong to the Associated Country Women of the World organization.
New Internationalist (NI) is an international publisher and left-wing magazine based in Oxford, England, owned by a multi-stakeholder co-operative and run day to day as a worker-run co-operative with a non-hierarchical structure. Known for its strong editorial and environmental policies, and its bi-monthly independent magazine, it describes itself as existing to "cover stories the mainstream media sidestep and provide alternative perspectives on today's global critical issues." It covers social and environmental issues through its magazine, books and digital platforms.
The Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op and formerly known as the Co-operative Wholesale Society, is a British consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses including grocery retail and wholesale, legal services, funerals and insurance retailing.
The Fairtrade Foundation is a charity based in the United Kingdom that aims to help disadvantaged producers in developing countries by tackling injustice in conventional trade, in particular by promoting and licensing the Fairtrade Mark, a guarantee that products retailed in the UK have been produced in accordance with internationally agreed Fairtrade standards. The foundation is the British member of FLO International, which unites FLO-CERT, 25 National Fairtrade Organisations and 3 Producer Networks across Europe, Asia, Latin America, North America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
An agricultural cooperative, also known as a farmers' co-op, is a producer cooperative in which farmers pool their resources in certain areas of activity.
The United Kingdom is home to a widespread and diverse co-operative movement, with over 7,000 registered co-operatives owned by 17 million individual members and which contribute £34bn a year to the British economy. Modern co-operation started with the Rochdale Pioneers' shop in the northern English town of Rochdale in 1844, though the history of co-operation in Britain can be traced back to before 1800. The British co-operative movement is most commonly associated with The Co-operative brand which has been adopted by several large consumers' co-operative societies; however, there are many thousands of registered co-operative businesses operating in the UK. Alongside these consumers' co-operatives, there exist many prominent agricultural co-operatives (621), co-operative housing providers (619), health and social care cooperatives (111), cooperative schools (834), retail co-operatives, co-operatively run community energy projects, football supporters' trusts, credit unions, and worker-owned businesses.
A consumers' co-operative is an enterprise owned by consumers and managed democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such co-operatives operate within the market system, independently of the state, as a form of mutual aid, oriented toward service rather than pecuniary profit. Many cooperatives, however, do have a degree of profit orientation. Just like other corporations, some cooperatives issue dividends to owners based on a share of total net profit or earnings ; or based on a percentage of the total amount of purchases made by the owner. Regardless of whether they issue a dividend or not, most consumers’ cooperatives will offer owners discounts and preferential access to good and services.
The Midcounties Co-operative Limited, trading as Your Co-op, is a consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom with over 700,000 members. Registered in England under the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, it is a member of Co-operatives UK and Federal Retail Trading Services.
Cooperative economics is a field of economics that incorporates cooperative studies and political economy toward the study and management of cooperatives.
FARMA is a co-operative association of farmers, producers and farmers' market organisations in the United Kingdom.
The Brighton Marathon is an annual marathon in Brighton and Hove, England. It was first held on 18 April 2010 and has usually been held in April every year since. The inaugural Brighton Marathon was set up by former international athlete Tim Hutchings and local athlete Tom Naylor.
The Heart of England Co-operative Society is an independent consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom. Based in Coventry, the Society trades in the English counties of West Midlands, Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.
The Chelmsford Star Co-operative Society is an independent consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom.
The Harmonies are a five-piece girlband formed in 2010, with the finalists of a competition with over 200,000 contestants organised by the Women's Institute and announced in February 2010, to create an album in celebration of the 95th anniversary of the WI.
Advanced Mobile Location is a free-of-charge emergency location-based service (LBS) available on smartphones that, when a caller dials the local short dial emergency telephone number, sends the best available geolocation of the caller to a dedicated end-point, usually a Public Safety Answering Point, making the location of the caller available to emergency call takers in real-time. AML improves the time taken by emergency call takers to verify the location of callers and can improve the time taken to dispatch an emergency response.
The IBSA World Games or World Blind Games are an international multi-sport event, occurring every four years, organized by the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA). The events enable blind and partially sighted athletes to compete in a number of sports. The first event took place at Madrid, Spain in 1998.
Alice Helena Alexandra Williams, also known as Alys Meirion, CBE, was a Welsh bard, painter, humanitarian, and voluntary welfare worker.
Dairygold Co-Operative Society Limited is an Irish dairy co-operative based in Mitchelstown, County Cork, Ireland. With its catchment area mostly in the Golden Vale, Dairygold processes an annual volume of approximately 1.43 billion liters of grass fed pastureland milk, making it Ireland's second largest dairy co-operative and the island's third largest milk supplier. Formed after the 1989 merger of the Mitchelstown and Ballyclough co-ops, by 2020 it had 7000 shareholder members and reported an operating profit of €26 million from a turnover of €1.02 billion.
