• Provide a comprehensive introduction to the subject and the current state of affairs with regard to the study of cooperation in the economy generally and of the cooperative and related sectors particularly.

• Highlight the essential issues and debates, and provide a future research agenda, outlining especially the distinctions and similarities between individual and (inter)organizational cooperation, and explore the connections of cooperative economics and management to fundamental ethical principles.

• Explore coopetition and the similarities and differences between competitive economics and cooperative economics and identify to what extent and how cooperative economics & management is more capable of addressing the known problems of global neoliberalism, such as ecological collapse, wealth inequity, value capture and distribution, and social/relational problems.

• Develop a range of analytic approaches to the subject, both appreciative and critical, and synthesize new theoretical constructs.

• Map out the various themes, issues of focus, and areas of concrete progress in the work of cooperative economics, its development and its related management concepts and practices.

• Feature and facilitate cross-pollination between disparate voices, traditions and professional communities engaged in cooperative economics & management.

• Create a bridge between scholars and practitioners’ communities dealing with cooperative economics and management, providing an opportunity of knowledge sharing, also through complementary multimedia sources to be linked with the Handbook.

In short, our aim is to produce the standard reference work for a broad and large audience— scholars, students, but also interested professionals, regulators, and cooperators in the field— wishing to orient themselves in a global, rapidly developing movement and field of study, with reference to issues of producing and allocating resources, focusing on the impact of cooperation on issues like risk, trust, the development of preferences, institutional governance, networks and inequity.

Keywords: Cooperatives, Cooperative economics, Cooperative management, Cooperation, Employee ownership, Labor-managed firms, Heterodox economics, Sustainability.