Interview with Debbie Clarke

This material is held atNational Co-operative Archive

Scope and Content

Interview covers 2000's-2018.

[00:00:00] Debbie outlines how she first came to be involved in Unicorn Grocery. [00:01:21] Talks about how Unicorn has developed during the time she's worked there (14 years), and how her perceptions of being in a worker co-op have changed during this time. [00:04:21] Talks about managing decisions and discussions in a large co-operative such as Unicorn, outlines plans to improve this through sociocracy. [00:07:27] Talks about balance between empowering members in a co-operative, whilst at the same time not overwhelming them. [00:08:46] Talks about different ways of making decisions, discusses consensus decision making, and devolved decision making. [00:11:41] Talks about the future process of applying sociocracy principles in Unicorn. [00:16:49] Discusses transparency within Unicorn, talks about the balance between sharing important information between teams at Unicorn, yet not allowing this to become overwhelming. [00:20:04] Both discuss different experiences that casual workers may have as opposed to members. [00:23:02] Both discuss pre-conceptions people may have about workers' co-operatives. [00:25:20] Debbie outlines what she likes most about working at Unicorn, and what she'd like to see improved.

Administrative / Biographical History

Debbie Clarke is a member of Unicorn Grocery, Manchester.

(Interviewer) Lucy-Kay Brownson worked as a volunteer for the Working Together project (2017-2018), and was also a casual worker at Unicorn Grocery.

Acquisition Information

In October 2017 the National Co-operative Archive sent out a request for interview participants from the wider workers' co-operative community to take part in Working Together, a Heritage Lottery Funded project seeking to record and preserve the heritage of the workers' co-operative movement. This interview was recorded in response to this request. The interview was conducted at Unicorn Grocery, Chorlton, Manchester.

Physical Characteristics and/or Technical Requirements

Length of interview: 00:29:12

Recording equipment: iPhone 6S iOS 10.3.3

Recording note: Original audio file m4a

Conditions Governing Use

This interview is licensed under a Creative Commons license (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives)

Related Material

Transcript and summary of interview.

Material related to Unicorn Grocery available for consultation at the National Co-operative Archive. Reference GB 1499 UNI.

Location of Originals

Original recording and transcript held at the National Co-operative Archive, Manchester.

Geographical Names