{ "model": { "rank": 4537, "code": "thing-q4539", "model_id": "vr.tr.cooperative", "name": "cooperative", "purpose": "Let an agent explain cooperatives and their principles, help people find, join or start a cooperative, and describe the legal and financial framework in general terms.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.ORG", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q4539/", "tier": 2, "score": 74, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "bicycle cooperative", "student housing cooperative", "information technology center", "artist cooperative", "Historical cold storage houses", "food cooperative", "community settlement", "energy cooperative", "social cooperative", "Puerto Carreño Online", "business cooperative", "Co-operative Society", "sambruksförening", "European Cooperative Society", "student co-operative", "bytové družstvo", "družstvo", "forestry cooperative", "Cooperativas de Créditos y Servicios", "transport cooperative", "Dienstleistungsgenossenschaft", "Bolgarskite Zemedelski Kooperacij", "canadian cooperative", "cooperative society", "Cooperativa", "Cooperativa de 2º Grau", "Genossenschaft", "Co-operative", "cooperative in Latvia", "cooperative company with unlimited liability with a social purpose", "cooperative society under public law", "civil company in the form of a cooperative company with limited liability", "cooperative company with limited liability under public law", "Limited cooperative association", "Mutual Aid Cooperative", "spotrebné družstvo", "coöperatie", "Koperasi", "digital cooperative", "multi-stakeholder cooperative" ], "aliasCount": 85, "merged": 99, "knownIn": 74, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q4539", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4539", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T15:46:30Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q4539", "registryId": "vr.tr.cooperative", "name": "cooperative", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.ORG" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q4539/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.cooperative", "name": "cooperative", "purpose": "Let an agent explain cooperatives and their principles, help people find, join or start a cooperative, and describe the legal and financial framework in general terms.", "definition": "An autonomous association of people united voluntarily to meet common economic, social and cultural needs through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise, such as consumer, worker, housing, agricultural, financial and artist cooperatives, operating on principles set by the International Cooperative Alliance.", "what_it_is_for": "Democratic, member-owned enterprise.", "affordances": [ "explain cooperative principles and types", "find cooperatives and federations", "outline steps to start a cooperative", "explain governance and member rights" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Member-owned", "Democratic control", "Voluntary and open membership", "Principles-based" ], "appearance": "Not physical; shops, farms, housing and services run by members.", "visual_identification": [ "Member ownership and one member one vote", "Registered cooperative status", "Companies are owned by shareholders by capital" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "consumer and food cooperatives", "worker cooperatives", "housing cooperatives", "agricultural and producer cooperatives", "financial cooperatives and credit unions" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "social enterprise", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "organization", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "housing", "why": "housing cooperatives" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "craft", "why": "artisan cooperatives" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "ICA Statement on the Cooperative Identity", "National cooperative laws", "ILO Recommendation 193" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Governance failures and member apathy", "Undercapitalisation", "Demutualisation pressures" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "principles", "name": "Principles", "description": "What makes a cooperative.", "rationale": "Principles define it.", "layers": [ { "id": "identity", "name": "Identity", "description": "Cooperative principles.", "findings": [ { "id": "identity-finding", "name": "Identity", "description": "Principles.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the cooperative principles, and how does this organisation apply them?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is it a genuine cooperative under local law?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "types", "name": "Types", "description": "Kinds of cooperative.", "findings": [ { "id": "types-finding", "name": "Types", "description": "Types.", "questions": [ { "text": "What type of cooperative is this, and who are its members?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "How does it differ from a company or charity?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "join", "name": "Join", "description": "Membership.", "rationale": "Members have rights.", "layers": [ { "id": "find", "name": "Find", "description": "Finding cooperatives.", "findings": [ { "id": "find-finding", "name": "Find", "description": "Finding cooperatives.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which cooperatives operate in this area or sector?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How can someone join?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "rights", "name": "Rights", "description": "Member rights.", "findings": [ { "id": "rights-finding", "name": "Rights", "description": "Member rights.", "questions": [ { "text": "What rights and responsibilities do members have?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How are surpluses distributed?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "start", "name": "Start", "description": "Founding one.", "rationale": "Steps and support.", "layers": [ { "id": "steps", "name": "Steps", "description": "Starting a cooperative.", "findings": [ { "id": "steps-finding", "name": "Steps", "description": "Starting.", "questions": [ { "text": "What steps are needed to form a cooperative here, in general terms?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which support organisations and funding exist?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "legal", "name": "Legal", "description": "Legal form.", "findings": [ { "id": "legal-finding", "name": "Legal", "description": "Legal form.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which legal forms are available, and what do they require?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the user asking for legal advice on their own case?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "govern", "name": "Govern", "description": "Running well.", "rationale": "Governance matters.", "layers": [ { "id": "governance", "name": "Governance", "description": "Boards and meetings.", "findings": [ { "id": "governance-finding", "name": "Governance", "description": "Governance.", "questions": [ { "text": "How should the board and general meeting operate?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How is member participation encouraged?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "finance", "name": "Finance", "description": "Capital.", "findings": [ { "id": "finance-finding", "name": "Finance", "description": "Finance.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do cooperatives raise capital while keeping member control?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What are the risks of demutualisation?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each cooperative type be a separate entry?", "How should federations be linked?", "How should national laws be localised?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "organisation or institution", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a cooperative, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain cooperatives and their principles, help people find, join or start a cooperative, and describe the legal and financial framework in general terms.", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "collective" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: bicycle cooperative, student housing cooperative, information technology center, artist cooperative, Historical cold storage houses, food cooperative, community settlement, energy cooperative, social cooperative, Puerto Carreño Online, business cooperative, Co-operative Society.", "99 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 74 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a cooperative, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Acts through people, and only through them.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. Recognised by name, register entry and the people acting in its name, and those change while it stays the same body." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "bicycle cooperative", "student housing cooperative", "information technology center", "artist cooperative", "Historical cold storage houses", "food cooperative", "community settlement", "energy cooperative", "social cooperative", "Puerto Carreño Online", "business cooperative", "Co-operative Society" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 74 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 99 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one cooperative from another, and a cooperative from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a cooperative, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a cooperative, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a cooperative is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a cooperative, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a cooperative, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a cooperative is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a cooperative sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a cooperative, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a cooperative, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a cooperative is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a cooperative from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a cooperative, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a cooperative, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a cooperative is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a cooperative passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a cooperative between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a cooperative, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a cooperative, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a cooperative is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a cooperative, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a cooperative is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a cooperative, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a cooperative, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a cooperative is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a cooperative.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a cooperative and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a cooperative, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a cooperative, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a cooperative, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a cooperative is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a cooperative and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a cooperative sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a cooperative, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a cooperative, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a cooperative is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "legal-identity", "name": "Legal identity and mandate", "description": "What cooperative is in law and what it exists to do.", "rationale": "Legal identity survives changes of name, address, staff and premises, which is exactly why it must be recorded separately from all of them.", "layers": [ { "id": "registration", "name": "Legal form and registration", "description": "Form, register, identifiers and jurisdiction.", "findings": [ { "id": "registration-record", "name": "Registration and identifiers", "description": "What names this body unambiguously in law.", "questions": [ { "id": "registration-record-q01", "text": "What legal form does cooperative take, in which register, under which identifier?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "registration-record-q02", "text": "What survives a rename, a merger or a move of premises, and what does not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mandate", "name": "Mandate and governing instrument", "description": "The purpose it is bound to and the document that binds it.", "findings": [ { "id": "mandate-record", "name": "Mandate and its source", "description": "What it may do, and the instrument that says so.", "questions": [ { "id": "mandate-record-q01", "text": "What is the mandate of cooperative, and which founding or governing instrument grants it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "mandate-record-q02", "text": "What lies outside the mandate, and what should an agent do when asked for it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "governance-and-membership", "name": "Governance, membership and decision rights", "description": "Who decides in cooperative and who belongs to it.", "rationale": "Authority inside an organisation is held by roles, not people, and an agent needs to know which role can commit it.", "layers": [ { "id": "decision-rights", "name": "Decision rights", "description": "Bodies, offices and what each may bind.", "findings": [ { "id": "authority-map", "name": "Who may bind the organisation", "description": "The offices that can commit it and their limits.", "questions": [ { "id": "authority-map-q01", "text": "Which bodies or offices of cooperative may take which decisions, and up to what limit?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "authority-map-q02", "text": "What evidence shows that a given person currently holds that office?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "membership", "name": "Membership and affiliation", "description": "Who counts as part of it and on what terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "membership-rules", "name": "Membership and its evidence", "description": "Classes of member, how membership starts and ends.", "questions": [ { "id": "membership-rules-q01", "text": "What kinds of membership or affiliation does cooperative have, and how does each begin and end?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "membership-rules-q02", "text": "What may a member do in its name, and what may they not?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a cooperative came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a cooperative and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a cooperative, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a cooperative, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a cooperative is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a cooperative is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a cooperative, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a cooperative, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a cooperative is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }