The International Co-operative Alliance and the consumer co-operative movement in northern Europe, c. 1860-1939

Mary Hilson

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781526100801
• eBook ISBN: 9781526127341
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Comparative Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The book examines the history of co-operation in the broad context of the history of consumerism and consumption; of internationalism and the development of international organisations; and debates about international trade during the inter-war period. The fundamental question explored in the book concerns the meaning of co-operation. Was it a social movement or an economic enterprise? Did it aspire to challenge capitalism or to reform it? Did it contain at its heart a political vision for the transformation of society or was it simply a practical guide for organising a business? Hilson argues that it was both, but that an examination of the debates over the different meanings of co-operation can also illuminate broader questions about the emergence of consumer interests in the first half of the twentieth century, especially in a transnational context.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• Tables
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Introduction: a transnational approach to co-operative history
• 1 Co-operation in the Nordic countries before 1914: international networks and the transmission of ideas
• 2 Co-operative internationalism in practice: the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) before and after the First World War
• 3 The politics of international co-operation: neutrality and crisis
• 4 Nordisk Andelsforbund (NAF), co-operative trade and Nordic co-operation during the interwar period
• 5 Co-operation and the emergence of the Nordic ‘middle way’
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index