ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 has introduced the early thinkers about cooperation and the ideologies that gave way to the emergence of the cooperative movement in the nineteenth century. Since then, cooperatives have been the object of study of many disciplines. This chapter consists of two sections that unpack that multidisciplinarity. The first part examines the academic literature that deals with ACs, divided by discipline and thematic stream, including: cooperative behaviours in the biosocial sciences (mainly psychobiology and evolutionary psychology), history, development studies, economic and organisational studies and food policy and rural sociology literature. The second section provides a synthesis of the literature around sustainable food systems, discussing the links between sustainability and ACs and the challenge of trying to quantify such a complex construct. At the end of the book, Chapters 10 and 11 link back to the literature review, sharing reflections on the value of a multidisciplinary approach to the study of ACs.
