“It’s a Co-op in Spirit, That’s What It Is”: Fostering Collaboration, Collectivity, and Egalitarianism in Food Cooperatives

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic examples from London-based food co-ops shaped by different political-economic environments, this article explores how the cooperative spirit is understood, enacted, and experienced within two co-ops with very different organisational structures and logics. While one was started by anarchist squatters in Thatcher's Britain of the 1980s, the other was founded by a local community centre during the New Labour years. Although these histories gave them different starting points in terms of cooperativism, they both faced challenges in its enactment relating to the different logics, ethics, and values of their members, and the structures of feeling in Britain. As cooperatives offer a valuable case study of more civically engaged networks of food production and consumption, an exploration of food co-ops offers valuable insights into the role of cooperation in a sustainable food system, as well as some of the barriers to its successful enactment. The paper highlights tensions between practice and ideology within cooperatives as well as the challenges of balancing collectivity and individualism, egalitarianism, and hierarchy. It argues that while practice and ideology need to go hand in hand in order to foster a strong cooperative spirit, collective reflection on future orientated goals is also a vital component of social transformation and pathways to sustainability.