Editorial: Cooperative Firms, Participatory Culture, and Contemporary Challenges: Essays in Honour of Johnston Birchall

Building on the attention that Johnston Birchall had devoted to real world cooperatives, their governance models and their effects on participants and on the development of regions and localities, the authors in this Special Issue present reflections on a range of institutional issues. These issues connect the organizational model of cooperatives with contemporary unresolved questions and challenges, from the role of federations and multiple membership structures, to the nature and effectiveness of cooperative platforms. Institutional models have been examined, again in the context of Johnston’s legacy, with respect to their role in alleviating poverty or replying to health emergencies and social isolation.