Practical tools for defining co-operative and mutual enterprise

Co-operatives UK is an authority on and a guardian of co-operative identity. With Practical tools for defining co-operative and mutual enterprise, which follows a draft released in 2011 for consultation, we aim to be transparent on how we make judgments on aspects of co-operative identity.

Being clear is not the same as being fixed in stone. In a democratic movement, it is right to test and debate how our core values and principles apply in practice. We welcome debate on these issues and we expect innovation so that co-operative practice can evolve over time.

We start with the framework of co-operative identity agreed through the International Co-operative Alliance. Drawing on this, we set out an explanation of two key dimensions of a co-operative. These are member-ownership and co-operative ethos.

This paper was written in 2012 by John Atherton, Johnston Birchall, Ed Mayo and Giles Simon.

The policy can be found here, the PDF publication and the assessment form for membership of Co-operatives UK are below.