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A cooperative ("coop") or co-operative ("co-op") is an autonomous association of people who voluntarily cooperate for their mutual social, economic, and cultural benefit.〔(Statement on the Cooperative Identity. ) ''International Cooperative Alliance.''〕 Cooperatives include non-profit community organizations and businesses that are owned and managed by the people who use their services (a consumer cooperative) or by the people who work there (a worker cooperative) or by the people who live there (a housing cooperative), hybrids such as worker cooperatives that are also consumer cooperatives or credit unions, multi-stakeholder cooperatives such as those that bring together civil society and local actors to deliver community needs, and second and third tier cooperatives whose members are other cooperatives. In short, a co-op is defined as "a jointly owned enterprise engaging in the production or distribution of goods or the supplying of services, operated by its members for their mutual benefit, typically organized by consumers or farmers."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Dictionary.com - Find the Meanings and Definitions of Words at Dictionary.com )〕 Co-operatives frequently have social goals which they aim to accomplish by investing 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 as compared with 2.4% for other rival supermarkets.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Community investment index: giving back to neighbourhoods )〕 The International Co-operative Alliance was the first international association formed by the cooperative movement. It includes the World Council of Credit Unions. A second organization was formed later in Germany, the International Raiffeisen Union. In the United States, the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) 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 the country and that consumers have access to cooperatives in the marketplace. A U.S. National Cooperative Bank was formed in the 1970s. By 2004, a new association focused on worker co-ops was founded, the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives. In 2012 the turnover of the largest 300 co-operatives in the world reached $2.2 trillion – which, if they were a country, would make them the seventh largest.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The World Co-operative Monitor )〕 ==Origins== (詳細はViamala in 1472. Pre-industrial Europe is home to the first cooperatives from an industrial context.〔(【引用サイトリンク】first=CICOPA )〕 In 1761, the Fenwick Weavers' Society was formed in Fenwick, East Ayrshire, Scotland to sell discounted oatmeal to local workers.〔Carrell, Severin. (Strike Rochdale from the record books. The Co-op began in Scotland. ), ''The Guardian'', 7 August 2007.〕 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 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 co-op ideas through writing and lecture. Cooperative communities were set up in Glasgow, Indiana and Hampshire, although ultimately unsuccessful. In 1828, William King set up a newspaper, ''The Cooperator'', to promote Owen's thinking, having already set up a co-operative store in Brighton.,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Full text of "Dr. William King and the Co-operator, 1828-1830" )〕〔"Dr. William King and the Co-operator, 1828-1830,T. W. MERCER,OL6459685M〕 The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, founded in 1844, is usually considered the first successful cooperative enterprise, used as a model for modern co-ops, 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 1,000 cooperative societies in the United Kingdom. Other events such as the founding of a friendly society by the Tolpuddle Martyrs in 1832 were key occasions in the creation of organized labor and consumer movements.〔Marlow, Joyce, The Tolpuddle Martyrs, London :History Book Club, (1971) & Grafton Books, (1985) ISBN 0-586-03832-9〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Cooperative」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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