A cooperative is an association of persons or an organization that is owned and controlled by the people to meet their common economic, social, and/or cultural needs and aspirations. Cooperatives can be created for a number of different reasons or to fulfill a number of different needs, such as jointly processing goods, splitting costs, splitting control over work, purchasing power (bulk buys), shared employees, shared wages, etc. . Cooperatives are democratically controlled by their members, with each member having one vote in electing the board of directors.

There are different types of cooperatives, including:

• Consumer cooperatives: businesses owned and managed by the people who consume their goods and/or services.
• Housing cooperatives: legal mechanisms for ownership of housing where residents either own shares reflecting their equity in the cooperatives real estate or have membership and occupancy rights in a not-for-profit cooperative.
• Worker cooperatives or producer cooperatives: cooperatives owned and democratically controlled by their "worker-owners". In a pure worker cooperative, only the workers own shares of the business on a one person, one vote basis, though hybrid forms exist in which consumers, community members, or capitalist investors also own some shares.
• Volunteer cooperatives: cooperatives that are run by and for a network of volunteers, for the benefit of a defined membership or the general public, to achieve some goal.

Cooperatives are guided by seven principles, which include voluntary and open membership, democratic member control, member economic participation, autonomy and independence, education, training, and information, cooperation among cooperatives, and concern for community. Cooperatives are not non-profits, and they aim to earn profits, but earnings generated by the cooperative benefit the member-owners.