arbiter
JournalsAccount

From New Left to Social Enterprise: A Conceptual History of the Industrial Common Ownership Movement, 1971–2001

Sean Irving

Enterprise and Society2025https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2025.10099article
AJG 3ABDC A
Weight
0.50

Abstract

This article examines how the ideological outlook of the British worker co-operative movement gradually assumed a neoliberal character. Drawing on methods from conceptual history, it traces the evolution of the movement’s key ideas and explores the changing language in which they were expressed. Central to this shift was the emergence of a social-enterprise discourse that reframed an earlier New Left commitment to pursuing worker control “in and against the market” as a conviction that such control could be achieved only “in and through” market participation. The study centres on the Industrial Common Ownership Movement (ICOM), a national federation of worker co-operatives active in Britain between 1971 and 2001. It uses items published by ICOM, material from numerous archives, and oral interviews conducted with some of those involved in the federation’s final years.

Open via your library →

Cite this paper

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2025.10099

Or copy a formatted citation

@article{sean2025,
  title        = {{From New Left to Social Enterprise: A Conceptual History of the Industrial Common Ownership Movement, 1971–2001}},
  author       = {Sean Irving},
  journal      = {Enterprise and Society},
  year         = {2025},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2025.10099},
}

Paste directly into BibTeX, Zotero, or your reference manager.

Flag this paper

From New Left to Social Enterprise: A Conceptual History of the Industrial Common Ownership Movement, 1971–2001

Flags are reviewed by the Arbiter methodology team within 5 business days.

Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.