coordinating structures. He predicts, based on case studies, that "In the end co-ordinators
are likely to take authority over those they co-ordinate, are likely to take away decision-
taking [sic] from individual co-ops and their members."
It is not necessary to restrict recommendations for cooperation among cooperatives, in
whatever form it takes, to theory. Many regional bodies of cooperatives exist and have as
part of their mission the promotion of cooperation among cooperatives. For example,
CECOP--the European Confederation of Workers' Co-operatives, Social Co-operatives
and Participative Enterprises--represents small and medium-sized worker-controlled
enterprises across 42 countries. The members of this international nonprofit association
include 37 national and regional federations of co-operative enterprises representing
around 83,000 enterprises employing 1.3 million workers. One element of CECOP's
mission is to stimulate inter-co-operation (CECOP undated).
Similarly, the Cooperative Assistance Network, a regional organization in the southern
UK covering approximately 10,000 square miles, promotes cooperation among different
kinds of cooperatives. Chris Funnell (2004) reported that the organization
developed a regional web site to market the products of co-operatives and
other social enterprises to each other and to other customers. The larger retail
co-operatives are developing policies to source an increasing proportion of
their produce locally and from agricultural co-operatives. There are also
regional producer/consumer co-operatives for farmers to bring their farms into
sustainable agricultural systems and market through farmers markets and local
consumer co-operatives."
In practice, the types of cooperation among cooperatives in the UK cover a very broad
range of activity, including loan funds, networking, promotion, directories, and collective
purchasing. One very large consumer cooperative in the Southeast, the Oxford, Swindon,
and Gloucester Co-op (OSG), has a policy of contributing funds to the promotion and
support of the wider co-operative sector in its area. In the most recent year, it gave 2% of
the Society's distributable profits to create, promote and develop other forms of co-
operatives (OSG undated-b). In 2000, with the support of local authorities and business
advice agencies, OSG founded Co-operative Futures, a new policy and support
organization. This new organization's members and board are representatives from local
social enterprises, and it employs consultants who work with existing and emerging
cooperative and mutual enterprises in the area's counties.
OSG and Co-operative Futures together produce a Directory of coops in the region (OSG
undated-b).
"The aim of the Directory is to help you discover the wide range of goods and
services that can be sourced from locally owned co-operative and community
enterprises in the Society's trading area. These range from crèches, credit