Co-operative conversations with Colin Talbot
March 31, 2025, 7:00pm
Colin Talbot has had what can best be described as a ‘squiggly’ career. Leaving school (and home) at 16 in 1969 to go and work initially for ICI pharmaceuticals research, he didn’t become an academic until over two decades later (1990), after a very varied work history including manual jobs, being a telephone engineer, and being a local government officer.
Since then Colin spent nearly 3 decades as a full-time academic, and part-time consultant and adviser to various governments and public services in the UK and internationally.
Although he’s been thinking about human organisation, and especially why and how humans co-operate, for most of his adult life, Colin freely admits he’s never really thought much about co-operatives as such until fairly recently. He’s realised this ‘blind spot’ is not just a personal quirk, but seems deeply embedded in our public realm political-economy. This conversation will explore why he thinks that is.
Be ready to think/hear about:
Why are co-operatives so ‘invisible’ in public affairs? Despite their size and spread, co-ops remain a relatively underexposed-explored form of human organisation in the mainstream media, politics, public policy, economics, and especially academia. Why?
Mike Wistow is a former Chair of UKSCS and has run a number of Co-operative Conversations over the last three years. You can explore some of these by clicking on the link below.
Explore Co-operative Conversations
The UK Society for Co-operative Studies (UKSCS) aims to assist, commission and/or identify, and to publish research, and to promote the exchange of information and experience on co-operative studies and research.
UKSCS charitable objects include advancing the education of the public concerning all aspects of the co-operative movement, and co-operative forms of structure.
