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 enterprise". Cooperatives may include:
The University of Sheffield is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It received its royal charter in 1905 as successor to the University College of Sheffield, which was established in 1897 by the merger of Sheffield Medical School, Firth College (1879) and Sheffield Technical School (1884).
A housing cooperative, housing co-op, or housing company, is a legal entity, usually a cooperative or a corporation, which owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings; it is one type of housing tenure. Housing cooperatives are a distinctive form of home ownership that has many characteristics that differ from other residential arrangements such as single family home ownership, condominiums and renting.
The North American Students of Cooperation (NASCO) is a federation of housing cooperatives in Canada and the United States, started in 1968. Traditionally, NASCO has been associated with student housing cooperatives, though non-student cooperatives are included in its network. NASCO provides its member cooperatives with operational assistance, encourages the development of new cooperatives, and serves as an advocate for cooperatives to government, universities, and communities. NASCO teaches leadership skills, provides information, and serves as a central link in facilitating the fruition of the cooperative vision for students and youth.
Radical Routes is a UK-based secondary co-operative of housing co-ops, worker co-ops, and social centres committed to social change. The organisation supports new and established co-ops through loan finance, training workshops, practical support, and national gatherings.
The Co-operative Group, trading as the Co-op, is a British consumer co-operative with a diverse family of retail businesses including food retail and wholesale; e-pharmacy; insurance services; legal services and funeralcare, with in excess of 3,600 locations. It is the largest consumer co-operative in the UK and owned by more than 4.6 million active members. Membership is open to everyone, provided they agree to subscribe £1 sterling in the capital of the society and share the values & principles upon which the group was founded. Members are democratically involved in setting business strategy, decide how social goals are achieved, and share in its profits – in 2018, £79m was returned to members and their chosen local community causes via the 5+1 scheme. The Group also owed £792m to its lenders.
The Phone Co-op is a consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom, which provides landline, mobile telephone and Internet services, including web hosting and broadband. Now part of the Midcounties Co-operative, the largest independent co-operative in the UK, it is owned by its customer-members who democratically control the business and who share in its profits. This makes The Phone Co-op the only telephone co-operative in the UK.
The United Kingdom is home to a widespread and diverse co-operative movement, with over 7000 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 which aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of their members. They operate within the market system, independently of the state, as a form of mutual aid, oriented toward service rather than pecuniary profit. Consumers' cooperatives often take the form of retail outlets owned and operated by their consumers, such as food co-ops. However, there are many types of consumers' cooperatives, operating in areas such as health care, insurance, housing, utilities and personal finance.
The Midcounties Co-operative 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 the Co-operative Retail Trading Group.
The history of the cooperative movement concerns the origins and history of cooperatives across the world. Although cooperative arrangements, such as mutual insurance, and principles of cooperation existed long before, the cooperative movement began with the application of cooperative principles to business organization.
A student housing cooperative, also known as co-operative housing, is a housing cooperative for student members. Members live in alternative cooperative housing that they personally own and maintain. These houses are specifically designed to lower housing costs while providing an educational and community environment for students to live and grow in. They are, in general, nonprofit, communal, and self-governing, with students pooling their monetary and personal resources to create a community style home. Many student housing cooperatives share operation and governing of the house. As with most cooperatives, student housing coops follow the Rochdale Principles and promote collaboration and community work done by the members for mutual benefit.
Co-op Food, previously trading as The Co-operative Food, is a brand devised for the food retail business of the consumer co-operative movement in the United Kingdom. The brand is used by over 15 different co-operative societies which operate over 4,000 shops, and does not represent one single food retail business. The successor to Co-op Welcome and a range of regional formats, the latest version of the brand was introduced in 2016 with a significant advertising campaign. Customers of many of the larger UK co-operative societies can earn an annual share of the profits at any "Co-operative" branded shop in proportion to purchases through The Co-operative Membership scheme.
The Co-operative is a common branding used by a variety of co-operatives based in the United Kingdom.
The Thamesmead Housing Co-operative was a housing estate in Thamesmead, South East London in the London Borough of Greenwich. It was a purpose built housing cooperative and like others it was an experiment in building close-knit communities and as a way of helping single people and couples.
Students for Cooperation (SfC) is a co-operative federation of student co-operatives across the UK, which exists to "develop and support the growing student co-operative movement". As a secondary co-op, the organisation is owned and controlled by its constituent member co-operatives.
Edinburgh Student Housing Co-operative is the largest student housing cooperative in the United Kingdom, providing affordable housing for the co-operative's 106 student members. The co-operative opened in the summer of 2014.
Birmingham Student Housing Co-operative is a student housing cooperative in the United Kingdom, providing affordable self managed housing for the co-operative's nine student members. The co-operative was the first operational student housing co-operative in the UK when it opened in June 2014.
