1. Introducing agricultural cooperatives in the context of a failing food system: context, clashing definitions, principles and typologies 2. Past and present: the evolution of agricultural cooperatives in Europe from the 1800s to the 21st century 3. Theorising cooperativism and food sustainability: Disciplinary, thematic and chronological streams 4. Why methods and theory matter when studying cooperativism and sustainability in food and farming? From critical approaches to crystalisation 5. Experts’ views on the European policy context: The price of remaining competitive and certifiying sustainability 6. Country cases – UK and Spain: From workers’ union to the European Union 7. Consolidation of the agricultural cooperative sector: from Farmway to Mole Valley Farm and Anecoop in the sea of plastic 8. Emerging models of cooperation in food and farming: Multi-stakeholder cooperatives 9. Third spaces: Fighting the cooperative corner and interrogating the alterity of emerging cooperative models 10. Theoretical implications: a new integrated framework for deconstructing agricultural cooperatives 11. Conclusions: implications for agricultural cooperatives, food policy and alternative food initiatives Appendices
Raquel Ajates Gonzalez is a Researcher at the European Commission-funded GROW Citizens' Observatory led by the University of Dundee, UK. Before that, she worked as a Teaching Fellow at the Centre for Food Policy, City, University of London, UK, where she also completed her PhD.