JOHNSTON BIRCHALL is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Stirling, UK. He studied at Oxford and did his PhD at York University, UK. He spent five years as a housing association manager before returning to academic life to focus for the next 25 years on questions concerning stakeholder participation in co-operatives, mutuals and public service agencies. He has written several books on the subject (with translations into five languages), and has advised UN agencies on co-operative responses to the global economic crisis.