People-Centred Businesses: Co-operatives, Mutuals and the Idea of Membership

by J. Birchall

Overview

So what is a member-owned business? What does it look like? How can we distinguish it from an investor-owned business? The crucial distinction is between a business that is people-centred, and one that is money-centred. This book explores the growing number of companies which use this model and their wider significance in society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349303793
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	01/29/2016
Edition description:	1st ed. 2011
Pages:	227
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

JOHNSTON BIRCHALL is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Stirling, UK. He studied at Oxford and did his PhD at York University, UK. He spent five years as a housing association manager before returning to academic life to focus for the next 25 years on questions concerning stakeholder participation in co-operatives, mutuals and public service agencies. He has written several books on the subject (with translations into five languages), and has advised UN agencies on co-operative responses to the global economic crisis.

Table of Contents

People-centred Businesses Theorising the Rise and Fall of Member-owned Businesses Consumer-owned Retail Businesses Consumer-owned Insurance Providers Consumer Ownership of Housing Consumer Ownership in Public Services and Utilities Consumer/Producer Owned Banks Producer-owned and Employee-owned Businesses The Peculiar History of 'Member-owned' Businesses in Developing Countries The Idea of Membership