Evaluating the Economic Impact of the Preston Model

The ‘Preston Model’ of community wealth building is an attempt to blend coordinated local procurement, the steering of investment, development of new cooperative enterprises and the strengthening of local supply chains, to generate growth and good jobs in the local economy.

The programme of work, undertaken by the research team, seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach in terms of its socio-economic impact upon the local economy and community.

Research Team

Impact

Work undertaken by the research team helped to inform the early development of the ideas which ultimately coalesced into what became known as the ‘Preston Model’. Preliminary discussions were chaired by Whyman, whereas a mapping study, undertaken by Froggett and Manley into cooperatives within Lancashire, informed that element of the strategy. Manley was a founding member of the Preston Cooperative Development Network. Both Whyman and Manley have provided local and national policy advice relating to different aspects of community wealth building.

Manley, J. and Whyman, P.B. (Eds.) (2021), The Preston Model and Community Wealth Building: Creating a Socio-Economic Democracy for the Future, Routledge, London, forthcoming.

Manley, J. and Aiken, M. (2020), ‘A Socio-economic System for Affect: Dreaming of Co-operative relationships and affect in Bermuda, Preston and Mondragón’, Organisational and Social Dynamics, 20(2): 173-190.

Manley, J. and Froggett, L. (2016), Cooperative Activity in Preston, UCLan, Preston.

Whyman, P.B. (2012), ‘Co-operative principles and the evolution of the ‘dismal science’: The historical interaction between co-operative and mainstream economics’, Business History, 54(6): 833-854.

Whyman, P.B. (2004), An Analysis of the Economic Democracy Reforms in Sweden: Background, Operation and Future, Edwin Mellen Press, Lewinston (NY).