Rotpunktverlag is a Swiss publishing house , headquartered at Hohlstrasse 86A , 8004 Zürich , Switzerland. Founded in 1976 in Zürich, it is specialized in political history .
99-599: The publishing house was founded in 1976 as the cooperative Rotpunkt Verlag (RPV) by the Swiss political party POCH (Swiss Progressive Organisations) to promote the publication and dissemination of socialist literature . Rotpunktverlag literally means Red Dot Publications . In the field of fiction, Rotpunktverlag publishes novels and short stories from Switzerland, including many first works, as well as political non-fiction . Contemporary literature by authors from Latin America and
198-460: A not-for-profit cooperative (non-share capital co-op), and they underwrite their housing through paying subscriptions or rent. Housing cooperatives come in three basic equity structures Members of a building cooperative (in Britain known as a self-build housing cooperative) pool resources to build housing, normally using a high proportion of their own labor. When the building is finished, each member
297-523: A card explaining the selected gift, while the actual gift item (frequently agricultural supplies or domestic animals) is sent to a family in a poor community. Critics argue that ethical consumerism has limited ability to affect structural change. Berkey (2021) has argued that ethical consumerism focuses on individual consumer behavior rather than systemic change can create a false sense of efficacy and distract from more effective methods of creating change, such as collective action and policy reform. Some say
396-455: A collective framework. They open up new horizons for people who have ambition but who lack the skills or confidence needed to set off entirely on their own – or who simply want to carry on an independent economic activity but within a supportive group context. A "purchasing cooperative" is a type of cooperative arrangement, often among businesses, to agree to aggregate demand to get lower prices from selected suppliers. Retailers' cooperatives are
495-410: A consumer rationalizes unnecessary and even unwanted consumption by saying that "it's for a good cause." As a result, the consumer buys pink ribbons during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month , green products to support the environment, candy and popcorn from school children, greeting cards and gift wrap from charities, and other such often-unwanted objects. The consumer avoids considering whether
594-479: A consumer's ethical obligation, self-identity, and virtues may also influence their buying decisions. In an effort by churches to advocate moral and ethical consumerism, many have become involved in the Fair Trade movement: A number of standards, labels and marks have been introduced for ethical consumers, such as: Along with disclosure of ingredients, some mandatory labelling of the origins of clothing or food
693-477: A fee. For example, parks in Jamaica show colorful fish and coral growth on pamphlets to attract tourists. These photos fetishize coastal waters by ignoring the other important ecological aspects of the water. In Montego Bay, Jamaica , environmentalists argue that tourism has damaged the park. Run-off feeds into the waterways and sea-grass beds integral to local nutrient cycles are removed. The strategic direction of
792-613: A form of purchasing cooperative. Major purchasing cooperatives include Best Western , ACE Hardware and CCA Global Partners . Agricultural service cooperatives provide various services to their individual farming members, and to agricultural production cooperatives , where production resources such as land or machinery are pooled and members farm jointly. Ethical consumerism Ethical consumerism (alternatively called ethical consumption , ethical purchasing , moral purchasing , ethical sourcing , or ethical shopping and also associated with sustainable and green consumerism )
891-537: A fundamental challenge to the hegemony of global neoliberal capitalism . Many cooperatives follow the seven Rochdale Principles : Since 2002, ICA cooperatives and WOCCU credit unions could be distinguished by use of a .coop domain. In 2014, ICA introduced the Global Cooperative Marque for use by ICAs Cooperative members and by WOCCU's Credit Union members so they can be further identified by their coop ethical consumerism label. The marque
990-440: A license for unethical behavior. In their 2009 paper, "Do Green Products Make Us Better People?", Nina Mazar and Chen-Bo Zhong write: In line with the halo associated with green consumerism, people act more altruistically after mere exposure to green than conventional products. However, people act less altruistically and are more likely to cheat and steal after purchasing green products as opposed to conventional products. Together,
1089-531: A member's investment into the cooperative. In the United States, many cooperatives were formed to provide rural electrical and telephone service as part of the New Deal . See Rural Utilities Service . In the case of electricity, cooperatives are generally either generation and transmission (G&T) co-ops that create and send power via the transmission grid or local distribution co-ops that gather electricity from
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#17330944353681188-593: A newspaper, The Cooperator , to promote Owen's thinking, having already set up a cooperative store in Brighton. Also in 1810, Rev. Henry Duncan of the Ruthwell Presbyterian Church in Dumfriesshire, Scotland founded a friendly society to create a cooperative depository institution at which his poorest parishioners could hold savings accounts accruing interest for sickness and old-age , which
1287-593: A proportion of trading profits back into their communities. As an example of this, in 2013, retail co-operatives in the UK invested 6.9% of their pre-tax profits in the communities in which they trade, compared to 2.4% for rival supermarkets. Since 2002, cooperatives have been distinguishable on the Internet through the use of a .coop domain. In 2014, the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) introduced
1386-507: A public place every year. Despite the short duration of its existence, until 1851, it thus formed the basis of the cooperative movement in Slovakia. Slovak national thinker Ľudovít Štúr said about the association: " We would very much like such excellent constitutions to be established throughout our region. They would help to rescue people from evil and misery. A beautiful, great idea, a beautiful excellent constitution! " Other events such as
1485-575: A range of social characteristics. Membership is open, meaning that anyone who satisfies certain non-discriminatory conditions may join. Economic benefits are distributed proportionally to each member's level of participation in the cooperative, for instance, by a dividend on sales or purchases, rather than according to capital invested. Cooperatives may be classified as either worker , consumer , producer , purchasing or housing cooperatives. They are distinguished from other forms of incorporation in that profit-making or economic stability are balanced by
1584-470: A secure income. The innovation BECs introduce is that once the businesses are established, the entrepreneurs are not forced to leave and set up independently, but can stay and become full members of the cooperative. The micro-enterprises then combine to form one multi-activity enterprise whose members provide a mutually supportive environment for each other. BECs thus provide budding business people with an easy transition from inactivity to self-employment, but in
1683-844: A significant market share in Europe and Latin America, as well as a few countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. They also have a strong presence in Asia, Australia, and the United States. According to the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), there were 68,882 financial cooperatives in 109 countries in 2016, serving more than 235 million members, with total assets exceeding 1.7 trillion dollars. The WOCCU's data do not include some major financial cooperative networks in Europe, such as Germany, Finland, France, Denmark, and Italy. In many high-income economies, financial cooperatives hold significant market shares of
1782-670: A third of respondents told researchers they would pay higher prices for ethical brands, though the perception of various companies' ethical or unethical status varied considerably from country to country. The most ethically perceived brands were The Co-op (in the UK), Coca-Cola (in the US), Danone (in France), Adidas (in Germany), and Nestlé (in Spain). Coca-Cola, Danone, Adidas, and Nestlé did not appear anywhere in
1881-487: A thousand cooperative societies in the United Kingdom. "Spolok Gazdovský" ( The Association of Administrators or The Association of Farmers ) founded in 1845 by Samuel Jurkovič, was the first cooperative in Europe ( Credit union ). The cooperative provided a cheap loan from funds generated by regular savings for members of the cooperative. Members of cooperative had to commit to a moral life and had to plant two trees in
1980-542: A trust that owns the company. The impact of political ideology on practice constrains the development of cooperatives in different countries. In India, there is a form of workers' cooperative which insists on compulsory membership for all employees and compulsory employment for all members. That is the form of the Indian Coffee Houses . This system was advocated by the Indian communist leader A. K. Gopalan . In places like
2079-546: A useful condition of artificial roads such as Viamala in 1472. Pre-industrial Europe is home to the first cooperatives from an industrial context. The roots of the cooperative movement can be traced to multiple influences and extend worldwide. In the English-speaking world , post- feudal forms of cooperation between workers and owners that are expressed today as " profit sharing " and "surplus sharing" arrangements existed as far back as 1795. The key ideological influence on
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#17330944353682178-446: A variety of sources and send it along to homes and businesses. In Tanzania, it has been proven that the cooperative method is helpful in water distribution. When the people are involved with their own water, they care more because the quality of their work has a direct effect on the quality of their water. Credit unions are cooperative financial institutions owned and controlled by their members. Credit unions provide to its members
2277-420: A way that has a high probability of risk of harm or destruction to that thing, we don't really care about it; we are practising a form of simple hypocrisy . Ethical consumerism is widely explained by psychologists using the theory of planned behavior , which attributes a consumer's choices to their perceived sense of control, social norms, and evaluation of the consequences. However, recent research suggests that
2376-425: A way that misrepresents their context. He first points to the images of growers commonly found on fair trade coffee packaging. The image suggests self-reliance and ignores the dependence upon immigrant wage workers who harvest the coffee. Fairtrade coffee is viewed as a direct link to the grower without a middle man. However, there are many parties involved such as the roasters, shippers, wholesalers, and retailers of
2475-486: A wider range of products and businesses. The Green Stars Project promotes the idea of including ethical ratings (on a scale of one to five green stars) alongside conventional ratings on retail sites such as Amazon or review sites such as Yelp . The term "political consumerism" , first used in a study titled "The Gender Gap Reversed: Political Consumerism as a Women-Friendly Form of Civic and Political Engagement" from authors Dietlind Stolle and Michele Micheletti (2003),
2574-419: Is a not-for-profit workers' co-operative founded in the UK in 1988 to "provide information on the companies behind the brand names and to promote the ethical use of consumer power." They provide an online searchable database under the name Corporate Critic or Ethiscore. The Ethiscore is a weightable numerical rating designed as a quick guide to the ethical status of companies, or brands in a particular area, and
2673-417: Is a type of consumer activism based on the concept of dollar voting . People practice it by buying ethically made products that support small-scale manufacturers or local artisans and protect animals and the environment, while boycotting products that exploit children as workers , are tested on animals, or damage the environment. The term "ethical consumer", now used generically, was first popularised by
2772-437: Is called greenwashing, which is prevalent in the cosmetic industry. Greenwashing has a negative impact on consumer trust with brands and cosmetic products that are marketed as green. In response to an increasing demand for ethical consumerism surrounding gift-giving occasions, charities have promoted an alternative gift market, in which charitable contributions are made on behalf of the gift "recipient". The "recipient" receives
2871-600: Is identical to the idea of ethical consumerism. However, in this study, the authors found that political consumerism as a form of social participation often went overlooked at the time of writing and needed to be accounted for in future studies of social participation. However, in "From Ethical Consumerism to Political Consumption", author Nick Clarke argues that political consumerism allows for marginalized groups, such as women, to participate in political advocacy in non-bureaucratic ways that draw attention to governmental weaknesses. Political consumerism has also been criticised on
2970-411: Is linked to a more detailed ethical assessment. "Alonovo" is an online shopping portal that provides similar weightable ethical ratings termed the "Corporate Social Behavior Index". Conscientious consumerism is when people make a habit of buying goods from ethical companies and avoid impulsive buying from unethical ones, in order to contribute positively in political, social, and environmental ways. Such
3069-481: Is released in stages as the building is completed. The term may also refer to worker cooperatives in the building trade. A utility cooperative is a type of consumers' cooperative that is tasked with the delivery of a public utility such as electricity, water or telecommunications services to its members. Profits are either reinvested into infrastructure or distributed to members in the form of "patronage" or "capital credits", which are essentially dividends paid on
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3168-479: Is required in all developed nations . This practice has been extended in some developing nations so that, for example, every item carries the name, phone number and fax number of the factory where it was made so a buyer can inspect its conditions. This can also be used to show that the item was not made by child labour or " prison labor ", the use of which to produce export goods is banned in most developed nations. Such labels have also been used for boycotts, as when
3267-410: Is the sole owner of a homestead, and the cooperative may be dissolved. This collective effort was at the origin of many of Britain's building societies , which however, developed into "permanent" mutual savings and loan organisations, a term which persisted in some of their names (such as the former Leeds Permanent ). Nowadays such self-building may be financed using a step-by-step mortgage which
3366-421: Is used today by thousands of cooperatives in more than a hundred countries. The .coop domain and Co-operative Marque were designed as a new symbol of the global cooperative movement and its collective identity in the digital age. The Co-operative Marque and domain is reserved just for co-operatives, credit unions and organisations that support co-operatives; is distinguished by its ethical badge that subscribes to
3465-574: The Anabaptists (e.g. Mennonites , Amish ), that one must accept all personal moral and spiritual liability for all harms done at any distance in space or time to anyone by one's own choices. Some interpretations of the book of Genesis from the Judeo-Christian scriptures appears to direct followers towards practising good stewardship of the Earth, under an obligation to a God who is believed to have created
3564-721: The Gaeltacht in Ireland and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. A worker cooperative or producer cooperative is a cooperative owned and democratically controlled by its "worker-owners". In a pure worker cooperative, only the workers own shares of the business on a one person, one vote basis, though hybrid forms exist in which consumers, community members or investors also own some shares (though these shares may or may not have voting power). In practice, control by worker-owners may be exercised through individual, collective or majority ownership by
3663-490: The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology , draws on Karl Marx's concept of commodity fetishism to argue that ethical consumption does not help consumers lead a more moral life, nor does it influence businesses as intended. The goal of ethical consumption at a personal level is to lead a more moral life, and that capitalism causes commodities to be presented in such a way that they are perceived without regard for
3762-561: The New Lanark mill from Owen's father-in-law, David Dale , and proceeded to introduce better labour standards, including discounted retail shops where profits were passed on to his employees. Owen left New Lanark to pursue other forms of cooperative organization and develop coop ideas through writing and lecture. Cooperative communities were set up in Glasgow , Indiana and Hampshire , although ultimately unsuccessful. In 1828, William King set up
3861-439: The value chain for which consumers are "responsible". Andrew Wilson, Director of the UK's Ashridge Centre for Business and Society, argues that "Shopping is more important than voting", and that the disposition of money is the most basic role we play in any system of economics . Some theorists believe that it is the clearest way that we express our actual moral choices: if we say we care about something but continue to buy in
3960-439: The 'Urgenossen'. A community cooperative is owned and governed by members of a local geographical community. It is established to meet the community's needs by providing goods or services that are not available or affordable through traditional market channels. This is distinct from meeting individuals' needs as individuals. The aim of a community cooperative is often to create a more equitable and sustainable economy that serves
4059-565: The Anglosphere branch of the cooperative movement, however, was a rejection of the charity principles that underpinned welfare reforms when the British government radically revised its Poor Laws in 1834. As both state and church institutions began to routinely distinguish between the 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor, a movement of friendly societies grew throughout the British Empire based on
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4158-563: The Caribbean is also distributed. Hiking have become a further hallmark of Rotpunktverlag's distributions, usually present region-related hiking and promotion of a smooth, sustainable tourism . For the purpose of long-term financial security, in 1997 the conversion into a corporation ( Aktiengesellschaft ) was decided: about 550 shareholders have been subscribed share capital for approximately 1,500,000 Swiss Francs. In May 2012, an authorized capital increase has been applied for, to which alongside
4257-526: The Cooperative Marque, meaning ICA cooperatives and WOCCU credit unions can also be identified through a coop ethical consumerism label. Cooperation dates back as far as human beings have been organizing for mutual benefits. Tribes were organized as cooperative structures, allocating jobs and resources among each other, only trading with the external communities. In alpine environments, trade could only be maintained in organized cooperatives to achieve
4356-613: The International Raiffeisen Union. In the United States, the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA CLUSA; the abbreviation of the organization retains the initials of its former name, Cooperative League of the USA) serves as the sector 's oldest national membership association. It is dedicated to ensuring that cooperative businesses have the same opportunities as other businesses operating in
4455-529: The Irish Trade Union movement focused the ILO policy of campaigning for decent work wherever there was an opportunity for job improvement or job creation. In Unequal Freedoms: The Global Market As An Ethical System (1998), John McMurtry argues that all purchasing decisions imply some moral choice, and that there is no purchasing that is not ultimately moral in nature. This mirrors older arguments, especially by
4554-499: The John Lewis Partnership, where profits are distributed to the workers, but at the discretion of a senior elected board. Business and employment cooperatives (BECs) are a subset of worker cooperatives that represent a new approach to providing support to the creation of new businesses. Like other business creation support schemes, BEC's enable budding entrepreneurs to experiment with their business idea while benefiting from
4653-629: The Netherlands, Rabobank holds 34% of deposits, and in France cooperative banks (Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel and BPCE Group) possess more than 59% of domestic credit and 61% of domestic deposits. In Finland, OP financial group holds 35% and 38% of domestic credit and deposits, respectively, and in Canada, Desjardins holds around 42% of domestic deposits and 22% of domestic credit. There are many types of cooperative financial institutions with different names across
4752-527: The SKOK ( Spółdzielcze Kasy Oszczędnościowo-Kredytowe ) network grew to serve over 1 million members via 13,000 branches, and was larger than the country's largest conventional bank. In the Scandinavia , there is a clear distinction between mutual savings banks (Sparbank) and true credit unions (Andelsbank). The oldest cooperative banks in Europe, based on the ideas of Friedrich Raiffeisen, are joined in
4851-1041: The UK magazine Ethical Consumer , first published in 1989. Ethical Consumer magazine's key innovation was to produce "ratings tables", inspired by the criteria-based approach of the then-emerging ethical investment movement. Ethical Consumer ' s ratings tables awarded companies negative marks (and overall scores, starting in 2005) across a range of ethical and environmental categories such as "animal rights", "human rights", and "pollution and toxics", empowering consumers to make ethically informed consumption choices and providing campaigners with reliable information on corporate behaviour. Such criteria-based ethical and environmental ratings have subsequently become commonplace both in providing consumer information and in business-to-business corporate social responsibility and sustainability ratings such as those provided by Innovest, Calvert Foundation , Domini, IRRC, TIAA–CREF , and KLD Analytics. Today, Bloomberg and Reuters provide "environmental, social, and governance" ratings directly to
4950-619: The UK's list of 15 most ethical companies. Nike appeared in the lists of the other four countries but not in the UK's list. In the UK, The Co-operative Bank has produced an Ethical Consumerism Report (formerly the Ethical Purchasing Index) since 2001. The report measures the market size and growth of a basket of 'ethical' products and services, and valued UK ethical consumerism at GBP 36.0 billion (~ USD 54.4 billion) in 2008, and GBP47.2 billion (USD72.5 billion) in 2012. A number of organizations provide research-based evaluations of
5049-457: The UK, common ownership (indivisible collective ownership) was popular in the 1970s. Cooperative Societies only became legal in Britain after the passing of Slaney's Act in 1852. In 1865 there were 651 registered societies with a total membership of well over 200,000. There are now more than 400 worker cooperatives in the UK, Suma Wholefoods being the largest example with a turnover of £24 million. There also exist some pseudo-cooperatives, such as
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#17330944353685148-621: The United States, Italy, or France. A consumers' cooperative is a business owned by its customers. Members vote on major decisions and elect the board of directors from among their own number. The first of these was set up in 1844 in the North-West of England by 28 weavers who wanted to sell food at a lower price than the local shops. Retail cooperatives are retailers, such as grocery stores, owned by their customers. They should not be confused with retailers' cooperatives, whose members are retailers rather than consumers. In Singapore, Italy, and Finland
5247-475: The actual effect of ethical consumerism is the preponderance of niche markets , while others argue that because it is difficult for consumers to obtain enough information about the outcomes of a given purchase, this prevents them from making informed ethical choices. Critics have also argued that the uneven distribution of wealth prevents consumerism, ethical or otherwise, from fulfilling its democratic potential. One study suggests that "Buying Green" serves as
5346-628: The banking sector. According to the European Association of Cooperative Banks, the market share of cooperative banks in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) credit market by the end of 2016 was 37% in Finland, 45% in France, 33% in Germany, 43% in the Netherlands, and 22% in Canada. In Germany, Volksbanken-Raiffeisen banks have a market share of approximately 21% of domestic credit and domestic deposits. In
5445-505: The basis that "it cannot work", or that it displays class bias. The widespread development of political consumerism is hampered by substantial mundane consumption, which does not afford reflective choice, along with complexities of everyday life, which demand negotiations between conflicting moral and ethical considerations. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, people in industrialized countries began formal consumer movements to ensure that they would get value for their money in terms of
5544-535: The behavior of companies around the world, assessing them along ethical dimensions such as human rights , the environment , animal welfare , and politics . Green America is a not-for-profit membership organization founded in 1982 that provides the Green American Seal of Approval and produces a "Responsible Shopper" guide to "alert consumers and investors to problems with companies that they may shop with or invest in." The Ethical Consumer Research Association
5643-619: The board of directors. They differ from collectives in that they are generally built from the bottom-up, rather than the top-down. Cooperatives may include: The Research published by the Worldwatch Institute found that in 2012 approximately one billion people in 96 countries had become members of at least one cooperative. The turnover of the largest three hundred cooperatives in the world reached $ 2.2 trillion . Worker cooperatives are typically more productive and economically resilient than many other forms of enterprise, with twice
5742-433: The company with the largest market share in the grocery store sector is a consumer owned cooperative. In Switzerland both the largest and the second largest retailer are consumer owned cooperatives. A housing cooperative is a legal mechanism for ownership of housing where residents either own shares (share capital co-op) reflecting their equity in the cooperative's real estate or have membership and occupancy rights in
5841-433: The constraints of various systems of national law) is the principle that an enterprise or association should be owned and controlled by the people it serves, and share any surpluses on the basis of each member's cooperative contribution (as a producer, labourer or consumer) rather than their capacity to invest financial capital. The International Co-operative Alliance was the first international association formed (1895) by
5940-623: The cooperative movement. It includes the World Council of Credit Unions . The International Cooperative Alliance was founded in London, England on 19 August 1895 during the 1st Cooperative Congress. In attendance were delegates from cooperatives from Argentina, Australia, Belgium, England, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, India, Italy, Switzerland, Serbia, and the US. A second organization formed later in Germany:
6039-681: The country and that consumers have access to cooperatives in the marketplace. In 1945 Artturi Ilmari Virtanen received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his invention of the AIV silage . This invention improved milk production and created a method of preserving butter, the AIV salt, which led to increased Finnish butter exports. He had started his career in chemistry in Valio , a cooperative of dairy farmers in which he headed
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#17330944353686138-512: The existing shareholders, other people may participate (legal and natural personalities), in all an additional a share capital in the amount of CHF 656,000, with the proviso that former shareholders may exercise pre-emptive rights of one share for two existing one. This predominantly may pre-finance the growing program and save the long-term liquidity . Rotpunktverlag is a member of SWIPS, the platform of independent Swiss publishers. Remarkable works include Grüningers Fall by Stefan Keller that
6237-592: The financial data screens of hundreds of thousands of stock market traders. The nonprofit Ethical Consumer Research Association continues to publish Ethical Consumer and its associated website, which provides free access to ethical rating tables. Although single-source ethical consumerism guides such as Ethical Consumer , Shop Ethical, and the Good Shopping Guide are popular, they suffer from incomplete coverage. User-generated ethical reviews are more likely, long-term, to provide democratic, in-depth coverage of
6336-840: The first in Europe. By 2004 a new association focused on worker co-ops was founded, the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives . The cooperative movement has been fueled globally by ideas of economic democracy . Economic democracy is a socioeconomic philosophy that suggests an expansion of decision-making power from a small minority of corporate shareholders to a larger majority of public stakeholders. There are many different approaches to thinking about and building economic democracy. Anarchists are committed to libertarian socialism and have focused on local organization, including locally managed cooperatives, linked through confederations of unions, cooperatives and communities. Marxists, who as socialists have likewise held and worked for
6435-514: The form of the state . Though they regard the state as an unnecessarily oppressive institution, Marxists considered appropriating national and international-scale capitalist institutions and resources (such as the state) to be an important first pillar in creating conditions favorable to solidaristic economies. With the declining influence of the USSR after the 1960s, socialist strategies pluralized, though economic democratizers have not as yet established
6534-466: The founding of a friendly society by the Tolpuddle Martyrs in 1832 were key occasions in the creation of organized labor and consumer movements. Friendly Societies established forums through which one member, one vote was practiced in organisation decision-making. The principles challenged the idea that a person should be an owner of property before being granted a political voice. Throughout
6633-627: The future. In 2009, Atlanta 's Virginia-Highland neighborhood became the first Carbon-Neutral Zone in the United States. Seventeen merchants in Virginia-Highland allowed their carbon footprint to be audited. Now, they are partnered with the Valley Wood Carbon Sequestration Project—thousands of acres of forest in rural Georgia—through the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). The businesses involved in
6732-444: The goal of democratizing productive and reproductive relationships, often placed a greater strategic emphasis on confronting the larger scales of human organization. As they viewed the capitalist class to be politically, militarily and culturally mobilized for the purpose of maintaining an exploitable working class, they fought in the early 20th century to appropriate from the capitalist class the society's collective political capacity in
6831-414: The images that sellers use as a means of virtue signaling, and purchase those products with the intent of ethical consumption because they believe that those images have been produced conscientiously to represent conceptual categories of "ethical." Carrier extends commodity fetishism to include nature reserves because they are advertised and because people are urged to visit the landscapes and animals for
6930-454: The impact of their purchases on society and the environment. This trend has led to the growth of companies that prioritize corporate social responsibility and ethical practices in their operations to reinforce customer loyalty. However, some companies have taken note of this shift towards conscientious consumerism and started deceptive marketing to convey a false impression that their product is environmentally friendly. This green marketing tactic
7029-508: The interests of the community. There are specific forms of incorporation for cooperatives in some countries, e.g. Finland and Australia. Cooperatives may take the form of companies limited by shares or by guarantee, partnerships or unincorporated associations. In the UK they may also use the industrial and provident society structure. In the US, cooperatives are often organized as non-capital stock corporations under state-specific cooperative laws. Cooperatives often share their earnings with
7128-451: The labor that is represented by the product, the labor that was involved in allowing that commodity to exist. The goal at a public level is for consumers to use their purchasing power to put pressure on companies to change the way they conduct business. Marx argued that under capitalism, the presentation of goods obscures the people and processes behind their production. Carrier begins by giving examples of products that have been presented in
7227-416: The market research group, made a five-country study of consumer beliefs about the ethics of large companies. The countries surveyed were Germany, the United States, Britain , France, and Spain. More than half of respondents in Germany and the US believed there is a serious deterioration in standards of corporate practice. Almost half of those surveyed in Britain, France, and Spain held similar beliefs. About
7326-427: The membership as dividends , which are divided among the members according to their participation in the enterprise, such as patronage, instead of according to the value of their capital shareholdings (as is done by a joint stock company ). The cooperative share capital or co-operative share capital (in short cooperative capital or co-operative capital ) is the form of capital that the cooperative accumulates from
7425-677: The merchandise mark Made in Germany was introduced in 1887. These labels serve as tokens of some reliable validation process, some instructional capital, much as does a brand name or a nation's flag. They also signal some social capital , or trust, in some community of auditors that must follow those instructions to validate those labels. Some companies in the United States, though currently not required to reduce their carbon footprint , are doing so voluntarily by changing their energy use practices, as well as by directly funding (through carbon offsets ), businesses that are already sustainable—or that are developing or improving green technologies for
7524-473: The moral rather than the functional liabilities of the entire production process. Paul Hawken , a proponent of natural capitalism , refers to "comprehensive outcomes" of production services as opposed to the "culminative outcomes" of using the product of such services. Often, moral criteria are part of a shift away from commodity markets towards a service economy where all activities, from growing to harvesting to processing to delivery, are considered part of
7623-443: The needs of local residents, rather than generating profits for external shareholders. By working together and pooling resources, members can often achieve economies of scale, negotiate better prices, and develop services that better meet the needs of their community. Community cooperatives can also help to build social capital and foster a sense of community ownership and pride. They have been successful vehicles for rural development in
7722-495: The number of co-operatives (80%) surviving their first five years compared with other business ownership models (44%) according to data from United Kingdom. The largest worker owned cooperative in the world, the Mondragon Corporation (founded by Catholic priest José María Arizmendiarrieta ), has been in continuous operation since 1956. Cooperatives frequently have social goals, which they aim to accomplish by investing
7821-451: The paid participation shares of its members. The total amount of participation shares the paid to the cooperative constitutes the cooperative capital. The co-operative share capital is usually non-withdrawable and indivisible to the cooperative members. The top 300 largest cooperatives were listed in 2007 by the International Co-operative Alliance . 80% were involved in either agriculture , finance , or retail and more than half were in
7920-723: The partnership display the Verus Carbon Neutral seal in each store front and posted a sign prominently declaring the area's Carbon Neutral status. (CCX ceased trading carbon credits at the end of 2010 due to inactivity in the U.S. carbon markets, although carbon exchanges were intended to still be facilitated .) Some theorists suggest the amount of social capital or trust invested in nation-states (or "flags") will continue to decrease, and that placed in corporations (or "brands") will increase. This can only be offset by retrenched national sovereignty to reinforce shared national standards in tax, trade, and tariff laws, and by placing
8019-606: The planet for people to share with other creatures. A similar argument presented from a secular humanist point of view is that it is simply better for human beings to acknowledge that the planet supports life only because of a delicate balance of many different factors. Some trust criteria, e.g. creditworthiness or implied warranty , are considered to be part of any purchasing or sourcing decision. However, these terms refer to broader systems of guidance that would, ideally, cause any purchasing decision to disqualify offered products or services based on non-price criteria that affect
8118-695: The price offered is fair, whether a small cash donation would be more effective with far less work, or even whether selling the item is consistent with the ostensible mission, such as when sports teams sell candy. Some of these efforts are based on concept brands : the consumer is buying an association with women's health or environmental concerns as much as they are buying a tangible product. Conscientious consumption involves people who are "more focused on real needs than artificially created craves," such as not continually following trend cycles in consumer industries. Conscientious consumerism has become more popular in recent years, with consumers becoming more aware of
8217-534: The principle of mutuality, committed to self-help in the welfare of working people. In 1761, the Fenwick Weavers' Society was formed in Fenwick, East Ayrshire , Scotland to sell discounted oatmeal to local workers. Its services expanded to include assistance with savings and loans, emigration and education. In 1810, Welsh social reformer Robert Owen , from Newtown in mid- Wales , and his partners purchased
8316-443: The product. Carrier also discusses fictitious commodities, which are things that are not produced in the conventional sense, material or not, and can be appropriated for commercial gain. The conceptual categories of ethicality need to be legible to consumers in order for a consumer to be able to participate in ethical consumption. Sellers use imagery to satisfy that need, and the images they use become emblematic and representational of
8415-461: The research department for 50 years and where all his major inventions were first put to practice. Cooperative banks were first to adopt online banking. Stanford Federal Credit Union was the first financial institution to offer online internet banking services to all of its members in October 1994. In 1996 OP Financial Group , also a cooperative bank , became the second online bank in the world and
8514-526: The rise of trade unions and industrial factories. Weinbren reports that by the end of the 19th century, over 80% of British working age men and 90% of Australian working age men were members of one or more Friendly Society. From the mid-nineteenth century, mutual organisations embraced these ideas in economic enterprises, firstly among tradespeople, and later in cooperative stores, educational institutes, financial institutions and industrial enterprises. The common thread (enacted in different ways, and subject to
8613-452: The same services as banks but are considered not-for-profit organizations and adhere to cooperative principles . Credit unions originated in mid-19th-century Germany through the efforts of pioneers Franz Herman Schulze'Delitzsch and Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen . The concept of financial cooperatives crossed the Atlantic at the turn of the 20th century, when the caisse populaire movement
8712-434: The second half of the nineteenth century (and then repeatedly every twenty years or so) there was a surge in the number of cooperative organisations, both in commercial practice and civil society, operating to advance democracy and universal suffrage as a political principle. Friendly Societies and consumer cooperatives became the dominant form of organization among working people in Anglosphere industrial societies prior to
8811-482: The seven ICA Cooperative Principles and Co-op Values. Co-ops can be identified on the Internet through the use of the .coop suffix of internet addresses . Organizations using .coop domain names must adhere to the basic co-op values. A cooperative is a legal entity owned and democratically controlled by its members. Members often have a close association with the enterprise as producers or consumers of its products or services, or as its employees. The legal entities have
8910-562: The studies show that consumption is more tightly connected to our social and ethical behaviors in directions and domains other than previously thought. In a 2010 The Guardian article, British environmental writer and activist George Monbiot argued that green consumers who do not articulate their values are part of "a catastrophic mistake," on the grounds that such consumerism "strengthens extrinsic values" (those that "concern status and self-advancement"), thereby "making future campaigns less likely to succeed". James G Carrier, Associate at
9009-732: The things they purchased. These movements focused on the unfair labor practices of the companies, and on labelling requirements of food, cosmetics, drugs, etc. Examples of the consumer movements were the Consumer League which was established in New York, US in 1891, National Consumers League created in US in 1898, and Consumers Council which was established during World War I in Great Britain. During this time workers were neither well-paid nor did they have secure employment with benefit of social protection; similarly, working conditions were decent and
9108-501: The trust in civil society in such "moral labels". These arguments have been a major focus of the anti-globalization movement , which includes many broader arguments against the amoral nature of markets. However, the economic school of Public Choice Theory pioneered by James M. Buchanan has offered counter-arguments based on an economic demonstration of this theory of "amoral markets", which lack ethics or morals, versus "moral governments", which are tied to ideas of justice. GfK NOP ,
9207-464: The values of ethical consumers, and in some ways the presentation of these images fetishize the product, and the pervasiveness of such images begins to shape ethicality, as the absence of these images also signifies the absence of those same values. In short: it is difficult to buy ethical products because there are many aspects to commodities that consumers are unable to be fully aware of; fully informed decisions are almost impossible to make. Consumers see
9306-413: The workforce, or the retention of individual, collective or majority voting rights. A worker cooperative, therefore, has the characteristic that the majority of its workforce owns shares, and the majority of shares are owned by the workforce. Membership is not always compulsory for employees, but generally, only employees can become members either directly (as shareholders) or indirectly through membership of
9405-652: The world, including financial cooperatives ('cooperativa financiera' is the Spanish term used in Latin America), cooperative banks, credit unions, and savings and credit cooperatives ('cooperativa de ahorro y crédito' in Spanish or ' coopérative d'épargne et de credit ' in French-speaking countries). Cooperative banking networks, which were nationalized in Eastern Europe, continued as cooperative institutions. In Poland,
9504-420: The year 2011. Cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative , co-op , or coop ) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-controlled enterprise ". Cooperatives are democratically controlled by their members, with each member having one vote in electing
9603-531: Was published in 1993, on which also partially bases the Swiss-Austrian film Akte Grüninger of 2013, honoring Paul Grüninger . In 1995 Peter Kamber's Schüsse auf die Befreier – Die Luftguerilla der Schweiz gegen die Alliierten 1943–45 documented among others the abuses at the Wauwilermoos penal camp between 1941 and 1945. In 1998 Rotpunktverlag was awarded by the Swiss book trade association as publisher of
9702-690: Was started by Alphonse Desjardins in Quebec, Canada. In 1900, from his home in Lévis , he opened North America's first credit union, marking the beginning of the Mouvement Desjardins . Eight years later, Desjardins provided guidance for the first credit union in the United States , where there are now about 7,950 active status federally insured credit unions, with almost 90 million members and more than $ 679 billion on deposit. Financial cooperatives hold
9801-625: Was the first established savings bank that would be merged into the Trustee Savings Bank between 1970 and 1985. The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers , founded in 1844, is usually considered the first successful cooperative enterprise, used as a model for modern coops, following the ' Rochdale Principles '. A group of 28 weavers and other artisans in Rochdale , England set up the society to open their own store selling food items they could not otherwise afford. Within ten years there were over
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