Cooperative Rule: Community Development in Britain's Late Empire

Cooperative Rule explores how cooperation became an integral part of colonialism in the late British Empire, viewing it as a unique solution to the problems of late colonialism and influencing the reimagination of community in Europe and America from the 1960s onward.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 274 pages
Publication date: 30 November 2021
Publisher: University of California Press

While many have interpreted the cooperative movement as propagating a radical alternative to capitalism, Cooperative Rule reveals that in the late British Empire, cooperation became an integral component of the arsenal of colonialism. The system was rooted in British rule in India at the end of the nineteenth century. Officials and experts saw cooperation as a unique solution to the problems of late colonialism, one capable of both improving economic conditions and defusing anticolonial politics by enabling community uplift among the empires predominantly rural inhabitants. A truly transcolonial history, this ambitious book examines the career of cooperation from South Asia to Eastern and Central Africa and finally to Britain. In tracing this history, Aaron Windel opens the door for a reconsideration of how the colonial uses of cooperation and community development influenced the reimagination of community in Europe and America from the 1960s onward.

While many have interpreted the cooperative movement as propagating a radical alternative to capitalism, Cooperative Rule reveals that in the late British Empire, cooperation became an integral component of the arsenal of colonialism. The system was rooted in British rule in India at the end of the nineteenth century. Officials and experts saw cooperation as a unique solution to the problems of late colonialism, one capable of both improving economic conditions and defusing anticolonial politics by enabling community uplift among the empires predominantly rural inhabitants. A truly transcolonial history, this ambitious book examines the career of cooperation from South Asia to Eastern and Central Africa and finally to Britain. In tracing this history, Aaron Windel opens the door for a reconsideration of how the colonial uses of cooperation and community development influenced the reimagination of community in Europe and America from the 1960s onward.

Weight: 384g
Dimension: 229 x 153 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780520381889