Andrew Bibby


 

 Details of all my books are available on this website. I have also archived on this site a wide range of newspaper articles and reports which I have written over the years. This includes work undertaken for a number of international and national organisations and for UK newspapers including The Observer, The Independent, The Guardian and Financial Times. If you wish to access anything from this archived material, please go to my home page.

Contact Andrew Bibby
   

 

    

Co-operatives and mutuality

This section of my website offers a selection of my writings on issues relating to co-operative forms of business, community-based social enterprise and mutuality.

My latest book is These Houses are Ours: Co-operative and Community-led housing alternatives, 1870-1919 (Gritstone Publishing, 2023). More details on a dedicated webpage here.

Have a look!  Want to know if this book is one you'll want to buy?  Have a look here at the extracts from three chapters, together with the book's contents page and index.

"What a fantastically researched and well written history of the co-operative housing movement, formed around the period from 1870 up until the 1919 Addison Act. Andrew Bibby is clearly a supporter and advocate for co-operative and community-led housing solutions, and this shows in the research and intricate detail of the book." - Journal of Co-operative Studies 

My guest post on the Municipal Dreams blog site with more information about the book was published on Feb 14 2023

This journal article also covers some of the same ground as the book:

Journal articles

The Gritstone Publishing Co-operative Model Seven Years On  (Journal of Co-operative Studies, Summer 2023)

Flying Below the Radar: England's early co-operative and co-partnership tenant societies today (Journal of Co-operative Societies, Vol. 55 (1), 2022)

Research paper: Cooperatives with multi-stakeholder membership: learning from the experience of an early British experiment.  (This paper was written in 2015 and presented at the ILO/ICA Cooperatives and World of Work research conference.)

Jesse Gray's role in the development of the British Co-operative Movement  (Journal of UK Society for Co-operative Studies,  51:3, Winter 2018)

Book: All Our Own Work (Merlin Press, 2015)

Image of cover

My history of the workers who successfully ran their own textile mill, one of the most significant of Britain's nineteenth century manufacturing cooperatives, has been very well-reviewed. Visit the dedicated webpage for mor information.

EARLIER REPORTS AND PUBLICATIONS NOW ARCHIVED

Good practice guidance for cooperatives on social and environmental performance (submission to the International Co-operative Alliance, March 2014)

Cooperative Advocacy: A Practical Guide for Advocating Cooperative Legal and Regulatory Reform (Nov 2013) For the US Overseas Cooperative Development Council, as part of the CLARITY (The Cooperative Law and Regulation Initiative) project.

After the Crash: Building a new economic future the co-operative way. (Nov 2009) This report, commissioned by the Co-operative Group, suggests that the co-operative business model offers a way to build strong, profitable businesses which are sustainable in the long-term, both environmentally and financially. Includes several case studies.

From Colleagues to Owners: transferring ownership to employees. A report (June 2009) for the Employee Ownership Association with ten case studies (including Martin Currie, Wilkin and Son, Herga, UBH International, CPCR, AG Parfett & Sons, GLL, Child Base).

My report Meeting housing needs the Co-operative way is published by Co-operatives UK. Two short extracts, published in New Sector magazine, can also be accessed.

The booklet HIV/AIDS and co-operatives (published March 2006) was written for the UK Co-operative College. Also still available is the first edition of Making a Difference: Co-operative solutions to global poverty (2005), co-written with Linda Shaw, also for the UK Co-operative College (now revised). Both PDF format.

Dec 2006: A second edition of Climbing the Ladder: step by step finance for social enterprise, written for Social Enterprise London, is available here (PDF).

Tanzania's co-operatives look to the future (written Jan 2006) reports on the country's co-op reform and modernisation programme.

The quest for capital in values-driven businesses. This is an expanded version of material contributed to the book Co-operative Capital (published Autumn 2004 by Co-operative Action - news story here) . The report explores the relationship between ethical/socially responsible investors and co-operatives/social enterprises. Includes an overview of ethical investment in the UK, 'alternative' share issues, and ethical venture capital. Short case studies include Traidcraft, Centre for Alternative Technology, Bay Wind.

The report Financial participation by employees in co-operatives in Britain includes an overview of the UK co-operative movement, an analysis of use by UK consumer co-ops of all-employee share ownership plans, and information on financial investment by members of workers' co-ops. The report was written in 2004 for the European project Confidence.

Three in-depth case studies (written late 2001) are now purely of historical interest:

My paper Co-operative Working and Community Projects (1986-7) is primarily of historical interest. Written over thirty-five years ago, it raised issues (including co-operative delivery of public services and 'stakeholder' approaches to co-operative structures) more widely debated today. And from even deeper in the archives comes an article Co-ops: Thinking politically written in 1979 for the magazine In The Making, exploring some of the contradictions facing co-ops operating within a capitalist economic system.

Journalism - ARCHIVED MATERIAL

From my contributions to The Guardian's former cooperatives and mutuals on-line hub, I've selected the following:

Work for other publications:

Some articles for The Guardian (2012, 2013):

Other journalism:

 

Return to my home page