At the Margins of Capitalism: Useful Histories at the Co-op Archive

At the Margins of Capitalism: Useful Histories at the Co-op Archive

How do co-operatives function within and outside of capitalism? How can we better understand the history of co-operatives that worked in food production or engaged with landscapes and the natural world? What can historians offer to present-day co-operatives - and how can we preserve co-operative archives for the future?

Hosted by the Co-operative Archive and the Sites of Fracture team of historians, this study day offers the opportunity to explore these questions together.a Lunch is included.

About the Sites of Fracture Project:

Sites of Fracture: 20th century Ireland at the margins of capitalism is an AHRC-funded project running from 2025 to 2027. This project brings together academics, artists, and archivists to explore the history of twentieth-century Ireland through the lens of landscape and capitalism. The core academic team includes Prof. Mo Moulton (Birmingham), Dr. Kevin O'Sullivan (Galway), Dr. Erika Hanna (Bristol), Dr. Patrick Doyle (Limerick) and Dr. Aoife O'Leary McNeice (Galway).

In our current moment of extraordinary ecological and economic challenges, there is a global search for alternatives to models of extractive capitalism. While these alternatives offer critiques of the global reach and power of modern economic processes, they are often profoundly local in their application, such as housing collectives, agricultural cooperatives, or alternate forms of energy provision. These schemes, while seeking to create alternate spaces of cooperation and community, have resided alongside or in opposition to global capitalist formations, with particular local repercussions.

We define these as ‘sites of fracture’, where messy, complex interactions between global capitalism and local alternative forms of organisation existed and produced particularly rich seams of memory and evidence. Ireland is understood by many measures to be one of the most globalised economies in the world, and is also a place where ownership of land has had profound political and cultural power. It is an ideal case study for exploring histories of capitalism and developing new place-based tools to understand and share this history.

About the Co-operative Archive:

The National Co-operative Archive is home to an internationally recognised collection of materials related to the history of the co-operative movement. They are located in central Manchester and are open to all.

Visitors to the Archive can be inspired and learn from our collections that cover a wide range of subjects including retail and commerce, women’s history, war, education, social history, film and photographs.

The Co-operative Archive is housed in the Co-operative Heritage Trust.

The Archive is located at Holyoake House on Hanover Street, Manchester, M60 0AS in Manchester City Centre's Co-operative Quarter. Hanover Street is just across the road from Victoria Train Station and a short Metrolink (tram) ride to Shudehill from Manchester Piccadilly Station.

The building has an access ramp from street level and a lift.

We have no onsite parking; the closest public car park is NCP Printworks, Shudehill, M4 2AT.