Co-operative place making and the building of co-operative capital: a case study of contemporary Rochdale

This research will take a longitudinal approach to co-operative place making in Rochdale with a specific focus on the process of building community cohesion skills, co-operative capital and collective entrepreneurship, including through heritage. The research will inform a transferable and scalable co-operative place making methodology and a social value evaluation tool.
The Co-operative was one of a number of movements responsible for social and economic place making in nineteenth and early twentieth century Britain. It emerged in response to the degradation of the industrial working class and the aim was to seek economic and social improvement. In the textile towns of Lancashire, co-operation reached beyond the landscape of work and into the home the community, and the family and political life. Whilst the movement’s main concern was to develop effective and democratic co-operative enterprises, of equal priority was a commitment to shaping co-operative community and identity through education. The educative purpose of the movement was more broadly “improvement” and the making of co-operative identity. The co-operative movement depended on individual self-responsibility and active citizenship but it was also an appeal to collective, community behaviours, to member ownership and engagement.
The aim of this project is to research the challenges and successes of 21st century place making activity in Rochdale, the “home of co-operation” which, according the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2016) is a “profoundly disconnected community”, a place, which by topping their index of absolute decline is identified as the most struggling city in the UK.
A robust body of research already evidences the resilience of co-operation post crisis (Ecorys, 2011; Roelants, 2012; Sanchez Bajo and Roelants2011) and co-operation is inimical to poverty alleviation and wealth creation globally. However, this “local initiative” takes place within a context of the “rolling back” of the state in current UK policy, the emergence of new actors delivering service provision and a general “turn” in interest towards new forms of collective entrepreneurship. What opportunities does this offer for co-operative developments?
Research objectives to meet the above aim include: reviewing relevant literature; defining key concepts; conducting research amongst Rochdale residents, experts, stakeholders and collective enterprises using participatory methodologies; identifying approaches to measuring the development of “co-operative capital” over time including co-operative skills acquisition, co-operative identity and co-operative start-ups; developing a place making matrix on education and opportunity, better jobs, community wellbeing, and engagement.
The successful applicant will engage with a constellation of stakeholders, including: Rochdale Co-operative Council, the Co-operative College, Manchester Metropolitan University, Co-operatives UK, Rochdale Development Agency, Link4Life, the Workers’ Educational Association and others committed to working through the Greater Manchester Devolution strategy to explore how enterprise, skills, co-operative education, co-operative apprenticeships, social and economic resilience and community cohesion can be built through heritage enterprise and related activities.

The supervisory team for this project will be Dr Olga Kuznetsova and Dr Steven Millington

The closing date for applications is 31st January 2017.
To apply, please use the form on our web page: http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/apply/postgraduate-research-course/ - please note, CVs alone will not be accepted.

For informal enquiries, please contact: [Email Address Removed]
Please quote the Project Reference in all correspondence.