Co-op resource centre Principle 5 is raising funds for the launch of a journal examining how co-operatives can address inequality, job loss, and community decline in Britain.
The Sheffield-based organisation says the publication, Co-opolitics, will be devoted to the “political economy of co-operation”.
Principle 5 adds: “It will publish research, essays and investigations examining how co-operative institutions can address some of the structural problems facing Britain today: automation and employment, the decline of local economies, ownership of essential services, and the institutions needed to scale the sector. This is not intended as a promotional magazine. If co-operation is to play a serious role it must be open to criticism as well as celebration.
To establish the journal for its first year, the organisation is looking to raise £2,000 through a crowdfunder, and has already received a £500 pledge from Independent Labour Publications.
Principle 5, which has spent more than a decade supporting co-operative development in Sheffield and across the UK, says it has seen ”the potential of co-operation and the obstacles faced by those trying to build new enterprises”.
It added: “Britain is entering a period of profound economic change. Artificial intelligence is reshaping the labour market, high streets continue to hollow out, and many communities feel they have lost control over the institutions that once sustained local life.
“Where people feel the system no longer works for them, they start looking for alternatives. For more than 180 years the co-operative movement has offered one: enterprises owned and governed by their members rather than distant shareholders. From the Rochdale Pioneers’ shop in 1844 grew a network of shops, factories, farms and financial institutions embedded across Britain. Co-opolitics is a new journal examining how that tradition might help rebuild communities in the 21st century.”
Pointing to Labour’s pledge to double the co-operative economy, Principle 5 says “the picture is mixed. Some legislative progress has been made and consultations have begun, but the gap between the language of community empowerment and the support required to make it real remains clear.
“Communities may gain rights to bid for assets, yet the capital and infrastructure needed to exercise those rights remain limited. The political opportunity exists, but the strategy for building a genuinely co-operative economy is still unclear.“
Co-opolitics will explore these issues, Principle 5 adds, and the £2,000 crowdfund will pay for the design and printing of the first issue (around 80–100 pages), contributors, distribution and the construction of an online platform.
“The content for the first issue is already in place,” it says. “All that we require is the printing and distribution costs. We also have plenty of ideas in place for future editions.”
