Research and Consultancy at the Co-operative College 

Research plays a big part in our work. It informs teaching, keeps us aware of new developments and helps us to evaluate best co-operative practice in our projects, partnerships and global networks. Although our main focus is on researching co-operative education and our international work, we are committed to researching and co-creating new knowledge in all emerging areas of co-operative practice such as in the workplace, social care and local communities.

Our research, which takes an action and participatory methods approach, is funded through grants and consultancies and our outputs range from research reports and conference presentations to co-supervising postgraduate researchers with our academic partners. We also host a global co-operative researcher database and run short courses on co-operative research methods.

The Team

Our research team offers consultancy to existing and emerging co-operatives and to non-co-operative organisations interested in applying co-operative research approaches and methods.   If you would like us to help you to conduct or design your individual or organisational research project please contact the team via [email protected].

Our aim is to demonstrate the positive difference co-operatives can make but our research is underpinned by genuine critical inquiry. We want our case for a co-operative world to be robust and compelling to co-operators and non-co-operators alike.