As the name suggests, Co-operative is a business that is owned and operated by its members. It remains a powerful vehicle for meeting people’s needs in fair minded participatory ways. They come together to meet their common needs like economic, social, cultural, environmental needs. Co-operatives can be either for-profit or non-profit enterprises. They are community-focused businesses and democratic and value based by nature.
It is considered as co-operative for the commons because it is often democratic, with each member having one vote. It helps in fighting with the imbalances of the capitalist market economy. While Capitalism has proven successful in generating more income, goods and services and technological progress, it has also led to inequality, misuse of power and exploitation of resources for own profit. Co-operatives businesses keep their money circulating within the local communities. They help in providing secure income, secure employment and help in sustaining healthy communities.
Co-operatives gives its owners a power to make their own decisions and help them not to be exploited by others. Often co-operatives work for the betterment of their communities. They share their profits within the communities, as their sole motive is not to only generate profit but to sustain their businesses for the society. Non-profit enterprises work to sustain businesses, their main motive is to run the business for the well-being of the community. Co-ops can be designed to mutualize benefits for participants rather than to maximize profits siphoned away by private investors. They remain a powerful vehicle for meeting people’s needs in fair minded participatory ways.
Co-operatives have been competing successfully in the Canadian marketplace for almost a century, many of them leaders in their industries. As in all businesses, however, co-op performance depends on good management and the ability to adapt and innovate in a changing economy.
Tamanna Garg and Navjot Kaur
References
Guttmann, A. (2020). Commons and Cooperatives: A new governance of Collective Action. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 92(1), 33–53. https://doi.org/10.1111/apce.12291
Kenton, W. (2021, May 19). Financial cooperative definition. Investopedia. Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/financial_cooperative.asp
What is a co-operative?: Ontario Co-operative Association. What is a Co-operative? | Ontario Co-operative Association. (n.d.). Retrieved April 15, 2022, from https://ontario.coop/what-co-operative
22 April 2022 at 1:43 am
Co-operative is an organization that is run by its member for the welfare of its member and the people in need. Like the co-operative banks provide financial help to its members and the people who need financial help at an affordable rate of interest. Basically, the common people for whom these cooperatives work are poor people. There are number of reasons that explains that why these cooperatives are important for the commons (Poor people). Following are the important reasons:
• Co-operative organizations are important because they listen to the community needs and answer them directly and tries to provide them solid solution for their problems.
• Co-operative organizations help the people to build a society with peace because the problems of the common people are solved by these organizations, and this helps to spread peace in the society.
• With the help of co-operatives, the poor farmers get training, resources and financial help and it helps them to get higher returns for their produce.
• The co-operatives related to industries and manufacturing, helps people and small industries to produce products that the easy to market and sell. This is done by providing them training, credit, and customer base.
(Ventura, 2018)
In this way the common people with lack of privileges get help from the co-operatives and thus equality is spread into the society.
References:
Ventura, J. (2018). 7 Reasons Cooperatives Are Important For Poverty Reduction – The Borgen Project. Retrieved from https://borgenproject.org/reasons-why-cooperatives-are-important-to-poverty-reduction/