Annotation "In Britain, group analysis developed as a group-centred approach of both therapeutic and non-therapeutic groups, from the foundational work of S.H. Foulkes. But there has been another, independent, Latin-American school of group analysis, which originated."

Over the past 20 years, the increased dominance in banking of the shareholder ownership model, whose main purpose is to maximize financial returns for shareholders, has proved to be a toxic combination with the financial deregulation the sector has undergone, the creation of new financial instruments and the concomitant rising levels of debt. Despite the growing role of private limited-liability banks around the world, co-operative banking still offers a compelling alternative, especially in Europe where the roots of co-operative institutions date back to the nineteenth century. This book studies the characteristics of different co-operative banking models of networks across several European countries to assess their impact on the profitability and resilience of the networks and their co-operative components. To date, empirical studies have neglected to examine the features of the networks to which co-operative banks belong. Surprisingly, there is little evidence on the extent to which the diverse organizational network structures determine differences in the profits and stability of individual banks and their networks across different countries. The principal objective of this book is to fill this gap in the literature. The European countries considered are Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. In these countries, co-operative banks constitute a significant presence although the organizational forms their networks take are quite different. Focusing on this sample of European countries therefore affords insights and reveals policy implications about the role that network organizations play in driving the performances of co-operative banks, which will be of interest to academics, researchers, and students of banking and financial institutions.

Globally, consumer co-operation has experienced a difficult period since the 1970s. Large scale failures in France, Germany and Austria were accompanied by loss of market share in the UK (including the failure of the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society and its takeover by its English counterpart). Even in the Nordic countries, where consumer co-operation has always been more robust, new challenges from the non-co-operative sector had to be confronted. How did co-operative organizations in different countries cope with these challenges? What were the processes of strategic renewal that they undertook? How successful were they? These are the key questions that the collection will address, culminating in an analysis by the editors of the effectiveness of strategic renewal in the co-operative sector. This book is a study of strategic renewal in the consumer co-operative sector, using eleven international case-studies to demonstrate how the concept has been applied over the last fifty years.

The purpose of this book is to introduce you in considerable detail to what we call the ‘co-operative enterprise’, and to explore with you the broader question of why co-operatives are important in today’s world. This is not a “how to” book, in the normal sense. It is however (we hope) an excellent foundation upon which to broaden your understanding and appreciation of co-operative forms of enterprise, not only in your country - but around the globe. You will learn why co-operation works and also see why sometimes it may not work, and you will learn about best practices and success factors within co-operatives. If you are an employee, a manager, or an elected official within a co-operative, you will also learn about why and how leadership and management effectiveness are different in co-operative forms of enterprise. The book is divided into five parts. The first part is called “Setting the Stage”, and contains two chapters. The first chapter introduces the reader to the nature of co-operation, while the second chapter looks at the evolution of co-operation all the way from social movements to business systems of enterprise. The second part is entitled “How Co-operatives Are Different” and begins by presenting what we call the “co-operative value proposition”. The third and fourth chapters provide details on the difference between the co-operative sector, the private sector, and the public sector. Chapter Five describes why and how leadership and management effectiveness are different in a co-operative. The third part is entitled “Co-operatives Today” and it includes three chapters. Chapter Six describes “National and International Co-operative Development”, and Chapter Seven looks at the role co-operatives have played and are playing in “Wealth Creation, Community Development ,and Poverty Reduction” around the globe. The last chapter in this section describes the “Pivotal Role for Government in Enabling Development.” Part Four is entitled “Building a Better World” and it includes three chapters. The first chapter, Chapter Nine is entitled “Some Strategies and Tactics for Success”. Chapter Ten is entitled “Towards a World Vision for Co-operatives”. Chapter Eleven is “The Challenges and Opportunities Ahead”, and it invites and challenges readers - and all co-operators - to seriously imagine what the future might be for co-operative forms of enterprise. No small undertaking to be sure! Just for fun we have included a final part called “Everything Else Co-operative” into which we cram additional co-operative website links and interesting content which we think you might like and which didn’t exactly seem to fit anywhere else. You decide! We also include some of our parting after thoughts (post scripts) in this section.

This updated edition on co-operative law shows how political change and several new trends have affected co-operative legislation. These trends include: economisation and approximation of co-operative law to company law; development of uniform legal designs for special matters like bookkeeping, audit, and merger across legal patterns and national boundaries; the revised co-operative principles of the International Co-operative Alliance; the growing difference between small and large co-operatives; and heterogeneous membership and extended solidarity. (Series: Economy: Research and Science / Wirtschaft: Forschung und Wissenschaft, Vol. 33) [Subject: Cooperative Law, Commercial Law]