Overview

The current co-op movement in the U.S. seeks to be a structural alternative to capitalism; this book seriously questions whether the current movement can accomplish that task. Carl Ratner offers a rich and unique political analysis and critique that provides helpful insights into the practice and problems of the contemporary cooperative movement. Noting that co-operators tend to view their work as apolitical because the explicit influence of national political parties is absent, the author constructs a compelling argument that co-operators nonetheless operate unwittingly with implicit political conceptions of freedom, opportunity, human rights, social participation, decision-making, power, and governance that are shaped and limited by the capitalist economic system. Ratner demonstrates how a more radical, anti-capitalist, socialist form of cooperation and co-ops are needed to realise the fulfilling potential of cooperation and co-ops. For those wishing to understand and advance the cooperative movement, this book is essential reading.

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9781634824071

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Carl Ratner has been an activist in the co-op movement since the 1970s. He has been a director of Northcoast Co-op, the largest consumer food co-op in California for 12 years. He was also President of its Community Fund for 5 years. He is a member of the Association of Cooperative Educators, and he blogs for Grassroots Economic Organizing. Ratner has written extensively on the international co-op movement after visiting many model co-ops in Spain and Italy, including Mondragon. Ratner is concerned to analyze the strengths and shortcomings of co-ops. He has analyzed both their theoretical principles and their everyday operations. Dr. Ratner has spent an academic career in the area of cultural psychology. He has researched the reciprocal interaction between culture and psychology. He is interested in how co-ops facilitate a cooperative psychology, and he is interested in how non-cooperative psychology impedes the development of co-ops.

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