Co-operatives and the Social Question

Whilst co-operative ideas had been discussed in all the Nordic countries from at least the 1860s, it was not until the 1880s that the first permanent organisations appeared. Of interest to students of both Scandinavian & Nordic Studies and Co-operative Studies and published to mark the UN International Year of the Co-operative in 2012, Co-operatives and the Social Question is a groundbreaking volume that: provides, for the first time English, a study of the development of the co-operative movement in the Nordic countries and eastern Europe. presents a unique comparative transnational perspective on the spread and development of co-operative ideas in these regions, and the links between them. offers a new perspective on late nineteenth and early twentieth-century debates on the social question, modernisation and the foundations of the welfare state. is a wide-ranging co-operative history, ranging from the urban consumer co-operative societies of Sweden to the peasant organisations of Hungary and Galicia in contrast to previous studies that have tended to focus exclusively on either consumer or agricultural co-operation.