Creating health-promoting spaces for change within the economy: the role of food co-operatives in England

Public health is in crisis, with health inequalities and environmental degradation reflecting failures and uneven power in our economy. There is interest in the potential of co-ops to address these issues. However, limited research explores if or how co-ops could reshape power dynamics towards health promotion within our current economy or wider transformation of it. Drawing on an understanding of health as the 'capabilities for everyday living' and power to live a life you value, as well as the concept of 'space', this article explores power dynamics in and around co-ops and how these shape co-ops' role in promoting health. While focusing on food co-ops and the economy in England, the findings offer broader learning. Based on a mixed qualitative methods study (March-July 2024), we show how three types of co-ops (established-scaled worker co-ops, 'emanant' worker co-ops, and community organizing co-ops) all act as enabling spaces for distributing power within the current economy; specifically, creating conditions for members to exert control in their lives (at work, in food systems and local areas), including through meaningful participation, access to affordable food and a more equal income. Co-ops also create other opportunities for meaningful connection and purpose which co-op members value as important for their wellbeing. However, the capacity of co-ops to exert wider transformation is constrained by their wider political, economic and social context, including the relative isolation in which they operate. Without broader collective mobilization to scale out, their full public health potential is unlikely to be realized.