Co‐operatives and public policy: A scoping review

Abstract We sketch a first‐ever map of the scholarly literature on co‐operatives and public policy from a selection of English‐language studies published since 2000 using a scoping review methodology. We find that while co‐operatives are often framed as solutions to societal problems, few scholars draw on formal public policy theories. We also observe that scholars concern themselves largely with a small set of jurisdictions (the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom and Canada) but ignore places like New Zealand that are also English‐speaking and have sizeable co‐operative sectors. We observe that although scholars have tended to focus on a relatively narrow set of policy‐relevant areas of co‐operative activity (e.g., agriculture, credit and housing), we also witness the emergence of a growing literature on energy co‐operatives. Finally, we identify a preponderance of scholarship anchored in traditional governance frameworks (e.g., principal‐agent and stakeholder theories) but also an emergent and growing scholarship that applies Ostrom's common‐pool resource framing to the study of co‐operatives and public policy. Our findings suggest that the study of co‐operatives and public policy is a rich area for further investigation, if only to inform policymakers and international agencies who, with or without supporting scholarship, continue to view co‐operatives as tools of public policy.