Cooperatives are member-owned, member-run enterprises created to provide services to a neighbourhood. They are run as businesses with the goal of producing a profit within a framework of values such as democracy, equity, and self-help.
Cooperatives have existed for over a century all around the world. The first in the USA was started in 1752 by former U.S. President Benjamin Franklin. Some of the most common are agricultural cooperatives that help producers sell their goods, financial cooperatives that deliver banking or insurance services to underserved communities, and housing cooperatives. The renewable energy sector is a new model where the cooperative structure is used to finance and operate small to medium renewable energy projects.
Cooperatives can be divided up into several types. Consumer-owned might be a food store, housing, a bank or an insurance company. Worker and producer owned might be manufacturing co-op or an agricultural co-op or a taxi company. Platform co-ops are for websites or mobile apps. Then there are multi-stakeholder co-ops which often deliver a number of services to a neighbourhood, but could be almost anything.
Anu Pussa is a Management Professor from the University of Eastern Finland. In 2021, she gave a TED Talk to discuss cooperatives which she calls the “giants of the economy.”