What Differences Does a Century Make? Considering Some Crises in the International Cooperative Movement, 1900 and 2000

Abstract

This essay compares the state of the international co-operative movement in 1900 and 2000 in an effort to understand how the international co-operative movement has developed and how it has responded to the main crises of the times. Its focus is largely on the International Co-operative Alliance and it considers crises that emerge from underlying ideological issues, long-range trends, and external events, such as wars and disasters. It describes how the movement has grown and changed over the century, but notes how it has suffered from a knowledge deficit, the growth of the market economy, and the impact of disaster, human and natural. It argues that the most important crises confronting the movement are long-standing though generally more attention tends to be paid to the immediate crises.

Keywords: international co-operative movement, crises affecting co-operatives, co-operative ideology, established and emerging co-operatives, co-operative research, co-operative organisation, women and co-operatives