Co-op News (August 2019)

CO-OP CULTURE AS A DANGEROUS IDEA IN
VICTORIAN
BRITAIN
BY REBEcCa HARVEY
There is much frustration within the
co-operative movement that few people
know about the model beyond food
stores and funeralcare. It is not on the
syllabus of most business schools, and
unless you live near, work for, engage
with or stumble across independent
co-ops, they are hard to find. As the
introduction to Co-operatives UK’s
Co-operative Economy Report 2018 asked:
“Despite providing solutions to so many
problems, with record membership
figures and demonstrating incredible
resilience, why do co-ops remain the best
kept business secret in the UK?”
But they are more than businesses. One
educational institution showcasing the
impact of co-ops to students is Manchester
University, which is running an English
Literature module on Competition,
Co-operation and Happiness: Dangerous
Ideas in Victorian Britain.
Led by Dr Michael Sanders, the course
starts by looking at three key ideologies
of the early 19th century – political
economy, utilitarianism and Owenism
– before exploring some of the ways in
which ideas of competition were revised
later in the 19th century as a result of the
ideas of John Ruskin and Charles Darwin.
The final third of the course
examines the efforts of the co-operative
movement to create an alternative to
the individualistic, competitive culture
fostered by industrial capitalism. It looks
at how this was reflected in co-operative
periodicals at the time, from Our Circle
(aimed at co-operative youth) and
Women's Outlook (the magazine of the
Co-operative Women’s Guild) to Millgate
Monthly (a cultural magazine aimed at
a co-operative public) and Co-op News
itself.
“I grew up in rural Devon, and even
there, ʻthe Co-op’ was always part of the
landscape,” says Dr Sanders. His teenage
years coincided with the anti-apartheid
movement, which the Co-op backed.
“You could shop in the Co-op safe in
the knowledge that there was no South
African produce there. And then the
Co-op suddenly changes from being just
another shop on the high street to being
a shop on the high street that was a little
bit different.”
From that early political awakening,
he became interested in the Chartist
movement and other aspects of working
class history. “The great working class
success story of the 19th century is the
co-operative movement,” he says. “That
story of how 24 men from Rochdale
changed the world is just mind blowing
and it spins off in so many different
“THE
THING ABOUT
VICTORIAN
LITERATURE IS
THAT IT'S NOT
A REAR VIEW
MIRROR,” SAYS
DR SANDERS.
"IT'S STILL WITH
US, STILL SHAPING
US AND ACTUALLY
IT MIGHT BE THE
FUTURE”
34 | AUGUST 2019