With contributions from over 30 scholars, A Global History of Consumer Co-operation surveys the origins and development of the consumer co-operative movement from the mid-nineteenth century until the present day. The contributions, covering the history of co-operation in different national contexts in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Australasia, illustrate the wide variety of forms that consumer co-operatives have taken; the different political, economic and social contexts in which they have operated; the ideological influences on their development; and the reasons for their expansion and decline at different times. The book also explores the connections between co-operatives in different parts of the world, challenging assumptions that the story of global co-operation can be traced exclusively to the 1844 Rochdale Co-operative Society. Contributors are: Amelie Artis, Nikola Balnave, Patrizia Battilani, Johann Brazda, Susan Fitzpatrick-Behrens, Maria Eugenia Castelao Caruana, Kay-Wah Chan, Bernard Degen, Daniele Demoustier, Espen Ekberg, Dulce Freire, Katarina Friberg, Mary Hilson, Mary Ip, Florian Jagschitz, Pernilla Jonsson, Kim Hyung-mi, Akira Kurimoto, Simon Lambersens, Catherine C LeGrand, Ian MacPherson, Francisco Jose Medina-Albaladejo, Alain Melo, Jessica Gordon Nembhard, Silke Neunsinger, Greg Patmore, Joana Dias Pereira, Michael Prinz, Siegfried Rom, Robert Schediwy, Corrado Secchi, Geert Van Goethem, Griselda Verbeke, Rachael Vorberg-Rugh, Mirta Vuotto, Anthony Webster and John Wilson.

Mary Hilson (PhD Exeter University, 1998) is Professor of History at Aarhus University, Denmark. She has published on labor and co-operative history especially in the Nordic countries, including the co-edited Co-operatives and the Social Question: The Co-operative Movement in Northern and Eastern Europe (1880-1950) (Welsh Academic Press, 2012).

Silke Neunsinger (PhD Uppsala University, 2001) is associate professor in economic history and director of research at the Swedish labor movement archives and library. She has published extensively on the history of social movements, feminist labor history, global labor history and methodology.

Greg Patmore (PhD University of Sydney, 1985) is Professor of Business and Labor History at the University of Sydney Business School. He specialises in business, labor and co-operative history. His most recent publication is Worker Voice. Employee Representation in Australia, Canada, Germany, the UK and the US 1914-1939 (Liverpool University Press, 2016).