History of Australian Co-operatives 1827–2023

Co-operatives provide a different approach to organising business through their ideals of member ownership and democratic practice. Every co-operative member has an equal vote regardless of his or her own personal capital investment. They take a variety of different forms including consumer co-operatives agricultural co-operatives worker co-operatives and financial co-operatives.Patmore Balnave and Marjanovic provide a perspective on Australian co-operative development within a conceptual framework and international context since the 1820s by exploring the economic political and social factors that explain their varying fortunes. Drawing upon the Visual Historical Atlas of Australian Co-operatives a significant database of Australian co-operatives and a variety of historical sources this book provides a detailed historical analysis of their development from their inception in Australia to today. Australian co-operatives were heavily dependent on state sympathy for their growth and vulnerable to ideas that challenged collective organisation such as Neo-liberalism. Despite these challenges the co-operative business model has persisted and since 2009 there has been resurgence of interest and organisation that may provide a platform for future growth.A useful resource for practitioners students educators policy makers and researchers that highlights a significant alternative business model to the Investor-Owned Business and state enterprise.The Open Access version of this book available at taylorfrancis has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.