University of Stirling

Prof Johnston Birchall

Staff Profile-Prof Johnston Birchall
Prof Johnston Birchall Professor of Social Policy, Applied Social Science Room 4S14
School of Applied Social Science
Colin Bell Building
University of Stirling
Stirling
FK9 4LA
Scotland
UK 01786 467981
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About
Johnston Birchall studied at Oxford and then spent five years as a housing association manager before returning to academic life with an MA in Social Policy and a PhD at York University. For the last 25 years (!) his focus has been on the subject of co-operation, more specifically in member-owned businesses (cooperatives, mutuals, and user-controlled public service agencies). He has been at Stirling since 1999.

Johnston has written several books (with translations into five other languages), his latest being People-centred Businesses: co-operatives, mutuals and the idea of membership (Macmillan, 2010).

Recently has he has been advising UN agencies on co-operative responses to the global economic crisis. He has a Leverhulme Fellowship for 2012, and is using it to write a book on people-centred banking.

*Find out more about JB's work under the 'Research' heading below.
*To make it easier for people to access his publications, JB has included a link to the University STORRE where many of them are deposited.

Research
  • I have always been fascinated by the idea of member-owned, as opposed to investor-owned, businesses. It seems to me that the co-operative business model is a serious alternative to corporate capitalism. My first two books were on small co-operative stores and co-operative housing. Then I wrote histories of the co-operative movement in Britain and internationally (published also in Japanese and Korean). My recent book, People-centred Businesses, is the culmination of this work as it provides a comprehensive analysis of all the main types of consumer and producer owned businesses. It is also being translated into Japanese and Korean. Now (with the help of a Leverhulme Fellowship for 2012) I am writing a book on the potential of co-operative banks to stabilize the banking sector and provide a more sustainable economy.
  • Between 2000 and 2006, Richard Simmons and I had a long (mainly ESRC funded), research programme in which we developed and field-tested a ‘mutual incentives theory’ of participation in relation to co-operative membership and user involvement in public service delivery. This extended into studies of the ‘culture of consumption’ in the relationship between public service consumers and providers. Now I am grounding this work in evolutionary and social psychology and game theory, and have just completed a report on the way consumer participation is changing, through the impact of the Internet and social media.
  • Not surprisingly, I have had quite an interest in organizational governance; the way organisations design their membership strategies and governance structures so as to make them more responsive. I have been a member of government advisory groups on governance of foundation trusts and mutual insurance companies, and have proposed mutual solutions for water, transport and other utilities.
  • In the last decade, working with UN agencies I have published a series of reports on the potential of co-operatives in poverty reduction in developing countries. Recently, Richard and I ran an ESRC-funded project that built on this work, focusing on the comparative advantages of agricultural co-operatives and credit unions, and providing case studies of Sri Lanka and Tanzania. I resist using the label ‘development studies’ and take a business studies approach that can be applied in any country.
  • From time to time I have entered into current debates about mutualisation of public services. My interest began with an edited book the New Mutualism in Public Policy, completed in 2001. I am currently writing three book chapters for various editors, including one for a book on the ‘Big Society’ to be published by Political Quarterly.
Research Groups
Teaching
Publications

Books
  • People-centred Businesses: Co-operatives, Mutuals and the Idea of Membership, London: Palgrave Macmillan 2010
  • Co-operatives and the Millennium Development Goals, Geneva: International Labour Organisation, 2004 (also versions in Spanish and Indonesian)
    Link to Text
  • Rediscovering the Cooperative Advantage: Poverty Reduction Through Self-help, Geneva: International Labour Organisation, 2003
    Link to Text

  • Decentralising Public Service Management with C Pollitt, London: Macmillan, 1998

  • The International Co-operative Movement, Manchester University Press, 1997 (also versions in Japanese and Korean)

  • Co-op: the People's Business, Manchester University Press, 1994 (Also versions in Japanese and Farsi)

  • Building Communities, the Co-operative Way, London: Routledge, 1988
  • Save Our Shop: the Fall and Rise of the Small Co-operative Store, Manchester: Holyoake Press, 1987

Journal Papers
  • ‘The comparative advantages of member-owned businesses’ accepted for publication in Review of Social Economy, and with online version Dec2011
  • ‘A “member-owned business” approach to the classification of co-operatives and mutuals’ Journal of Co-operative Studies, August 2011
  • ‘User Involvement in Public Services: ‘Choice About Voice’, forthcoming in Public Policy and Administration (with R Simmons and A Prout), published online in March 2011
  • ‘The co-operative reform process in Tanzania and Sri Lanka’ in Annals of Public and Co-operative Economics, 2010, 81.3, 467-500 (with R Simmons)
  • The role and potential of co-operatives in poverty reduction: Network perspectives. Journal of Socioeconomics 37(6):2131-2140. 2008 (With R Simmons)

  • 'The mutualisation of public services in Britain: a critical commentary'. Journal of Co-operative Studies, 2008, 41(2):5-37.

  • ‘Citizen governance: opportunities for inclusivity in policy and policy-making’ Policy and Politics, 2007. 35.3, 457-478 (with R Simmons, S Doheny and M Powell)
  • The Role and Potential of Co-operatives in the Poverty Reduction Process: a research agenda. Journal of Co-operative Studies, 2007 :43-51 (with R Simmons)
  • ‘Tenant participation and social housing in the UK: applying a theoretical model’, Housing Studies 2007 22.4, 573-595 (with R Simmons)
  • ‘A joined-up approach to user participation in public services: strengthening the participation chain’, Social Policy and Administration, 39.3, 2005, 260-283 (with R Simmons)

  • ‘The mutualisation of public services in Britain; a critical commentary’, Kurswechsel Heft 3, 2004, 85-95

  • ‘What motivates members to participate in co-operative and mutual businesses: a theoretical model and some findings’, Annals of Public and Co-operative Economics’, 75.3 pp465-495, 2004 (with R Simmons)
  • ‘The involvement of members in the governance of large-scale co-operative and mutual businesses: a formative evaluation of the Co-operative Group, Review of Social Economy, 12.4, December 2004, 465-486 (with R Simmons)

  • 'The implications for corporate governance of the proposed mutual ownership of water utilities and public transport' (2002), Journal of Corporate Law Studies2.1, 155-181

  • 'Mutual, non-profit or public interest company? An evaluation of options for control of water utilities' (2002) Annals of Public and Co-operative Economics, 73.2, 1-33

  • ‘Some theoretical and practical implications of the attempted takeover of a consumer co-operative society Annals of Public and Co-operative Economics, Vol 71.1, March 2000, pp29-54

  • ‘What makes people participate in co-operatives? - towards a theoretical model’ Journal of Rural Co-operation, 1999 Vol 27.1,pp3-16
  • The Lanica Affair: an attempted takeover of a consumer co-operative society’, Journal of Co-operative Studies, 31.2, 1998 pp.15-32
  • `Co-operative values, principles and practices: a commentary’ Journal of Co-operative Studies 30.2, 1997 pp.42-69
  • `Decentralisation of local government services: some emerging paradigms’ in Journal of Behavioural and Social Sciences, 1997 No.2 pp.1-11
  • `Tenant co-partnership and the Garden City Movement’ Planning Perspectives 10, 1995 pp.329-358

Book Chapters
  • ‘The Role and Potential of Co-operatives in the Poverty Reduction Process’, in Howell, J (ed, forthcoming 2012) Non-governmental public action and social justice, Palgrave Macmillan (with R Simmons)
  • 'The public service consumer as member'. in Simmons, R., Powell, M., and Greener, I. The Consumer in Public Services: Choice, Values and Difference. 2009. Bristol, The Policy Press (with R Simmons)
  • "Reconnecting and extending the research agenda on children’s participation: mutual incentives and the participation chain", in Davies, J, Hill, M., Tisdall, K. and Prout, A. (eds, 2007) Children, Participation and Social Inclusion, Bristol: Policy Press (with A Prout and R Simmons)

  • ‘Business ethics and the Co-operative Bank’, in Tsuzuki, C (ed, 2005) The Emergence of Global Citizenship: Utopian Ideas, Co-operative Movements and the Third Sector, Tokyo: Robert Owen Association of Japan

  • ‘What motivates members to participate? A reworking of a theoretical model and some findings’, in Harafolas, S, Spear R and Styjan, Y (eds) (2004) Local Society and Global Economy; the role of co-operatives, Athens: Editions Hellin

  • 'Consumer co-operatives in retrospect and prospect', in Birchall (ed) 2001 The New Mutualism in Public Policy, (edited) London: Routledge.

  • Member participation in mutuals: a theoretical model', with R Simmons, The New Mutualism in Public Policy, (edited) London: Routledge, 2001

  • ‘Letting managers manage: decentralisation and opting out’ with C Pollitt in Stoker, G (ed) The New Management of British Local Governance, London: Macmillan, 1999

  • ‘Decentralisation in an inter-governmental context: the UK experience of managing local service delivery’ with C Pollitt in Halachmi, A. And Boorsma, P (eds)Inter and Intra Government Arrangements for Productivity, Dordrecht: Kluver, 1998

  • `Empowering consumers through co-operatives’ in J. Quinn (ed) Ethics and Empowerment London: Macmillan, 1998

  • `The psychology of participation’ in M. Hawtin and C. Cooper (eds) Housing, Community and Conflict London: Ashgate, 1997
  • 'The hidden history of housing co-operatives in Britain' in Heskin, A and Leavitt, L (eds) The Hidden History of Housing Co-operatives, UCLA, California, 1996
  • ‘Council tenants: sovereign consumers or pawns in the game?’ in Birchall (ed) 1992
  • 'Time, habit and the fraternal impulse' in Young, M. (ed, 1988) The Rhythms of Society, London: Routledge

Research Reports
  • Practical Tools for Defining Co-operatives, Co-operatives UK 2011 (with John Atherton, Ed Mayo and Giles Simon)
    Link to Text
  • A Comparative Study of Co-operatives in Scotland, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland. 2010. Glasgow, Co-operative Development Scotland.
    Link to Text
  • Resilience of the Co-operative Business Model in times of crisis. 2009. International Labour Organisation Sustainable Enterprise Programme, Responses to the Global Economic Crisis (also in Italian and Greek) (with L Hammond Ketilson)
    Link to Text
  • Co-operatives and Poverty Reduction: evidence from Tanzania and Sri Lanka. 2009. Manchester, Co-operative College (with R Simmons)
    Link to Text
  • An Introduction to Co-operatives, UN ECOSOC
  • Our Say: User Voice and Public Service Culture, London: National Consumer Council, 2007 (with R Simmons and A Prout
  • User Power: the participation of users in public services, London: National Consumer Council, 2004 (with R Simmons)
    Link to Text
  • ‘Participation overview’ and ‘Participatory stocktaking’ in Governance and Participation Project Development Toolkit, Manchester, Co-operatives UK, 2004
  • Motivating members: member participation on governance: a study of the Co-operative Group, Manchester: Co-operative College Paper 3, 2003 (with R Simmons)
  • Getting involved: studies of member participation in co-operatives across the West Midlands, Manchester: Co-operative College Paper 2, 2003 (with R Simmons)
  • Common Ground – for Mutual Home Ownership, CDS Co-operatives/New Economics Foundation 2003 (with P Conaty, Bendle, S, and Foggitt, R)
  • A Mutual Trend: How to run rail and water in the public interest, London: New Economics Foundation, 2002
    Link to Text
  • Organising Workers in the Informal Sector: a Strategy for Joint Co-operative-Trade Union Action, Geneva: International Labour Office, 2001

Edited Books

  • The New Mutualism in Public Policy, (edited) London: Routledge, 2001

  • Housing Policy in the 1990s, London: Routledge, 1992, reprinted 1994
Research Projects

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University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA, Scotland, UK, Telephone: +44 (0)1786 473171
Scottish Charity Number SC 011159