Industry WIKI

Community ownership is a broad term that refers to shared ownership and decision making over local assets, resources, or services, typically for the purpose of ensuring economic, cultural, and social benefits for its users. The forms of community ownership and concepts about what constitutes “ownership” are diverse and depend greatly on context. However, generally in cases of community o

A platform cooperative, or platform co-op, is a cooperatively owned, democratically governed business that establishes a two-sided market via a computing platform, website, mobile app or a protocol to facilitate the sale of goods and services. Platform cooperatives are an alternative to venture capital-funded platforms insofar as they are owned and governed by those who depend on them mo

A purchasing cooperative is a type of cooperative arrangement, often among businesses or governments, to agree to aggregate demand to get lower prices from selected suppliers. Retailers' cooperatives are a form of purchasing cooperative. Cooperatives are often used by businesses or government agencies to reduce costs of procurement. One such organization is Sourcewell, a Minnesota-based

Social cooperatives exist to provide social services such as the care of children, elderly and disabled people, and the integration of unemployed people into the workforce. The phenomenon is most developed in Italy, but exists in various forms in many countries. In countries such as Sweden and Britain they exist without any special legislation, while elements of the Italian model have be