Seven Job Creation Strategies for Shareable Cities
Sharing is also at the heart of the employment model that is designed to keep wealth and jobs in the community: cooperatives.
co-operatives
Welcome to Commonomics: How to Build Local Economies Strong Enough for Everyone
Farmer-philosopher Wendell Berry defines economy this way: “I mean not economics but economy, the making of the human household upon the earth; the arts of adapting kindly the many, many human households to the earth’s many eco-systems and human neighborhoods.”
Worker Ownership as inclusive capitalism
Inclusive capitalism may not sell well with professors and pundits, but it appears to have some genuine appeal at the grass roots with “Main Street” business owners and across a surprisingly wide spectrum of political opinion.
How the Power of Cooperation Transformed a Vacant Lot in South Chicago
“Communication, collaboration, cooperation—those are skills, not just words,” said Salim Al-Nurridinn, founder of the Healthcare Consortium of Illinois, while standing at the gate of the Cooperation Operation (Coop Op).
Why we need cooperative accumulation
Co-operative accumulation must be framed as one important means…to navigate the cascade of challenges flowing from the need to rapidly uncouple fossil fuels as our primary energy source.
Introducing 24 Ways to Invest Locally – tips 1-4
It’s New Economy Week. Want some ideas on how to make real changes in your local economy?
Why open governance and scalable leadership matter
We must look into the creation of new management and governance models that are more horizontal, informal and cooperative.
Co-op Breweries: Craft beer in the new economy
Fermented beverages of one sort or another have played a part in every civilization. The evolution of fermentation by human hands has been a diverse one, too. From what is arguably the first fermented beverage, mead, found in ancient Greek, Egyptian and even Sumerian records, all the way to today’s micro-brewed extreme barley-based ales like Imperial India Pale Ales and 21% abv Stouts. However, the next step in this evolution comes not in the changing of flavors or styles, but the organization behind its creation: behold the grand idea of Cooperative Breweries!
The unstoppable rise of the collaborative economy
My work at the REconomy Project has inspired me to believe that a credible alternative to our current system is now emerging at an incredible rate.
Living in the New “Pre-History”
The problem with pure worker ownership of large industries is that the worker/owners are under the same market pressures as any other company. They are therefore as likely to pollute the environment, for example, if they’re under competitive pressures to do so, as the next guys. So that means the worker-owned company’s interests are somewhat different from that of its surrounding community—which includes elderly people, young people, all those who happen to be out of the workforce. After all, half the society at any one time is not part of that worker ownership.
Communities, co-operatives, and social businesses: Towards a systemic proposal
The inability of economics to internalize social and environmental externalities makes it so that it essentially serves capital through a debt-based economic growth; thus moving away from its primary goal: the correct distribution of scarce resources in order to satisfy human needs. As a consequence, unless a dramatic change in the path of development is implemented, it (the economy and our economic system) is leading us to an abyss. On the flip side, the re-localization of economies and lifestyles, linked to the rise of social businesses and to the potential of cooperatives as a social form for a more equitable distribution of wealth, inspires an opportunity to reorient human evolution towards wellbeing-generation and the creation of a system that is resilient to the threats that the world is facing. Hundreds of cases now exist in which neighborhood communities are assuming an increasing role in the decisions that affect their own future. The key to an encouraging future might lie in providing these socially and environmentally desirable approaches with economical viability.
Meet the Maker Space in a church basement
On assignment for Shareable in Detroit, I’ve been looking for some hope to report on beyond the devastation porn the mainstream media seems fixated on. I’d only been there one day and found plenty of it – driven by determined, creative and resilient folks.