Author

The University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives seeks to increase understanding and encourage critical thinking about cooperatives by fostering scholarship and mutual learning among academics, the cooperative community, policy makers and the public.

Philip Mirkin is the founder and executive director of the Fiji Institute of Sustainable Habitats (www.SustainableFiji.org), now partnered with the Fiji Government, and the cofounder of the Fiji Organic Village. He is also founder of Hybrid Adobe International, which designs and creates new building materials and architecture to respond to climate change. He has designed ecovillages in Fiji and New Zealand, and is currently designing hurricane-resistant natural shelters. Philip has led more than 120 workshops in sustainable building at University of California Santa Cruz, The Institute for Solar Living, the American Institute of Architects, and many other locations. Since 1981, Philip has led annual humanitarian aid relief expeditions around the world. He has also authored several books including The Hybrid Adobe Handbook. He can be reached at philipmirkin [AT] hotmail.com.

Benjamin Melançon is a member of Agaric, a worker-owned tech co-op. His work with Agaric clients has included universities (MIT and Harvard University), corporations (Backupify and GenArts), and not-for-profit organizations (Partners In Health and National Institute for Children's Health Quality).

Yana Ludwig is a cooperative culture pioneer, intentional communities advocate, and anti-oppression activist. She serves on the board of the Fellowship for Intentional Community and works as a local chapter coach for Showing Up for Racial Justice. Her latest book, Together Resilient: Building Community in the Age of Climate Disruption, was awarded the Communal Studies Association 2017 Book of the Year Award. She is a podcast host on Solidarity House (advocating for cooperative culture and economics) and a founding member of the Solidarity Collective, an income-sharing community in Laramie, Wyoming.

Joe Cole is a member of Hart’s Mill Ecovillage, a community in formation in central North Carolina. Joe has a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Duke University, and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Joe works as a Facilitator and Consultant for communities and nonprofit organizations.

Daniel Chavez, a TNI fellow, specialises in left politics, state companies and public services. He is an active contributor of the Municipal Services Project (MSP) research network, has contributed to Alternatives to Privatization: Public Options for Essential Services in the Global South (Routledge, 2012) and has co-edited The Reinvention of the State: Public Enterprises and Development in Latin America and the world.