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Exploring Asian-Pacific Co-operatives in Theory and Practice

Resilience and Thriving between the State and the Market

  • 1st Edition - November 24, 2025
  • Latest edition
  • Editors: Morris Altman, Akira Kurimoto
  • Language: English

Exploring Asian-Pacific Cooperatives in Theory and Practice: Resilience and Thriving between the State and the Market investigates Asian-Pacific coop models mainly through the anal… Read more

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Description

Exploring Asian-Pacific Cooperatives in Theory and Practice: Resilience and Thriving between the State and the Market investigates Asian-Pacific coop models mainly through the analytical lenses of Asian-Pacific researchers. It consists of theoretical and empirical analyses on transversal themes from interdisciplinary studies and national case studies covering multiple sectors and countries. It focuses on a variety of challenging issues using different analytical approaches to cooperative challenges in the Asian-Pacific and examines the traditional dichotomy between the State and the Market.

Key features

  • Explores how coops in the Asian-Pacific develop as successful business models, providing a broader understanding of cooperatives in different national and cultural settings
  • Investigates why coops succeed or fail in the Asian-Pacific region, helping readers to understand under what conditions coops can deliver more equitable and sustainable growth
  • Utilizes a case study approach, with the second half of the book featuring national case studies covering numerous sectors and countries in the Asian-Pacific

Readership

Co-operative practitioners and researchers, Industry leaders world-wide, including members of the International Co-operative Alliance, governments and advisors with an interest in co-op led development, academics in various fields related to studies of co-operatives, graduate and undergraduate students, Journalists and policy pundits with an interest in more democratic organizational forms, especially in an Asian-Pacific context

Table of contents

Preface


1. Introduction

Part 1 Theoretical foundation for analyzing AP Co-ops
1A. Institutional changes and transformation in the AP co-ops

2 Overview of 1A

3. Legal framework of AP co-ops

4. Transformation and hybridization of AP co-ops

5. Demutualization of co-ops in AP

6. Co-operative Spin-off in AP

7. Co-operation among AP co-ops

8. International co-operation to/from AP co-ops

9. AP co-operatives and Social Solidarity Economy

1B. AP co-ops seen from entrepreneurial perspectives

10. Overview of 1B

11. Modelling multi-stakeholder co-ops in AP

12. Eco-innovation of AP co-ops

13. How Co-operatives Can Be Competitive with Plantations in AP

14. AP co-ops seen from youth’s perspective

15. Comparing dairy co-operatives in New Zealand and France

16. Comparing consumer co-ops in Japan and Finland

Part 2 Case studies of AP co-operatives’ good practices

2A. Financial co-ops


17. Overview

18. NACUFOK in Korea

19. Labor banks in Japan

20. Kyosai insurance Co-op in Japan

21. Kopkun in Indonesia

2B. Health care co-ops

22. Overview

23. Minami Medical Co-op in Japan

24. Health care social co-ops in Korea

25. Indian co-op hospitals

26. Galle co-op hospital in Sri Lanka

2C. Education and youth co-ops

27. Overview

28. School co-ops in Malaysia

29. Rah-e Roshd cultural-educational cooperative in Iran

30. University co-ops in Japan

31. University co-ops in India

2D. Platform co-ops

32. Overview

33. Life magic care co-op in Korea

34. SEWA in India

35. Open Food Network in Australia

Epilogue

Product details

  • Edition: 1
  • Latest edition
  • Published: November 25, 2025
  • Language: English

About the editors

MA

Morris Altman

Morris Altman is the Dean of the University of Dundee School of Business and former Chair Professor of Behavioral and Institutional Economics and Co-operatives. He is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, earning his PhD in economics from McGill University in 1984. Morris was a former visiting scholar at Cambridge (Elected Visiting Fellow), Canterbury, New Zealand (Erskine Professor), Cornell, Duke, Harvard, Hebrew, Stirling, and Stanford University. He has published well over 120 refereed papers and given over 250 international academic presentations and has also published 19 books in economic theory, co-operatives, behavioral economics, economic growth, ethics, economic history, sustainability, and public policy. He is past president of the Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE) and the Association for Social Economics and is co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Review of Behavioral Economics. He also served on research committees of the International Co-operative Alliance.
Affiliations and expertise
Dean, University of Dundee School of Business; Former Chair Professor, Behavioral and Institutional Economics and Co-operatives, Dundee, UK

AK

Akira Kurimoto

Akira Kurimoto is the Senior Fellow of the Japan Co-operative Alliance and the Chair of the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) Research Committee. He serves as a member of the ICA Co-operative Identity Advisory Group and the Steering Committee of the ICA World Co-operative Monitor. He studied law at the University of Tokyo. He was a professor at the Institute for Solidarity-based Society at Hosei University, Tokyo 2015-2020. He was the board member/chief researcher of the Consumer Co-operative Institute, Japan and the general secretary of the Robert Owen Association. He edited a number of volumes including The Emergence of Global Citizenship: Utopian Ideas, Co-operative Movements and the Third Sector (2005) and Toward Contemporary Co-operative Studies: Perspectives from Japan’s Consumer Co-ops (2010). He is a founding member of the Asia Pacific Co-operative Research Partnership which published Waking the Asian Pacific Co-operative Potential in 2020.
Affiliations and expertise
Senior Fellow, Japan Co-operative Alliance; Chair, International Co-operative Alliance Research Committee, Tokyo, Japan

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