All Together Now: How Co-operatives Are Born Again as Communities Help Themselves

Spurred on by tough financial times, co-operatives are re-emerging in Australia as viable, progressive businesses. Country-wide, co-ops have saved "essential" community services and meeting places from the local store or pub to hardware suppliers, bakeries, cinemas and caravan parks. Recent start-ups include a wind farm and a medical centre. The co-op renaissance combines commercial aspirations and social purpose in a thoroughly sustainable 21st century business model as communities work to meet their own needs through social enterprise. What's not to like? Outdated legislation and lousy funding opportunities. So, will the focus from the International Year of Co-operatives in 2012 change all that?