place-based (local) economics

Producer organizations (POs) receive substantial attention and policy support, given their potential to contribute to pro-poor rural development. Here, we first synthesize decades of empirical research in the form of five stylized facts—common and largely unchallenged conclusions—about POs. Then, we explore these stylized facts using several secondary and primary data sets. We confirm some stylized facts, challenge others, and highlight which ones lack empirical evidence to derive policy implications and directions for future research.

How might the commons paradigm be applied to cities in a more focused, effective way?  To find some answers, I recently interviewed two leading thinkers and advocates for urban commons, Sheila R. Foster and Christian Iaione.

How the VAWC Inter-cooperative Loan Fund helped save the fledgling worker co-op Flat Iron Coffeehouse.

Founded in 2010, SCF is run as a community benefit society, a type of co-operative, whereby the farm business is owned by roughly 400 members of the public and counting.

A Venezuelan cooperative network that recently received the “Alternative Nobel Prize” tells its story.

A look at a multi-stakeholder cooperative with a worker-owner member class and bylaws that state neutrality toward union formation.

Yavor Tarinski’s Concepts for a Democratic and Ecological Society challenges your mind on the most significant questions such as direct democracy, de-growth, solidarity economy, and libertarian municipalism.

Across the world, a quiet revolution is emerging. Countless grassroots groups, civil society organizations and individuals are coming together to forge a more hopeful path to the future: away from the destructive global consumer culture, towards healthy communities grounded in strong local economies.

Employee ownership, particularly in the form of worker cooperatives, offers a solution for business transitions.