USP 530 – Session 5

This session was canceled

 

February 24th
Session Five: Alternative Business, Housing, and Food Ownership Models and Structures

 I Alternative Business Ownership Structures: Worker Owned Cooperative Businesses

Worker-owned cooperatives are businesses that are owned and managed by their workers. Although there are variations, typically, each worker owns a share and all shares are owned by the workers. The infrastructure of worker-owned cooperatives differs, as control by worker-owners can be performed through individual, collective, or majority ownership. Research on worker-owned cooperatives shows that they are often more efficient and productive, and that workers have much higher levels of satisfaction and pride in their company and work.

 Required Reading 

  1. Worker Owned Cooperatives and Democratic Governance, John Pencavel
  2. Worker Cooperatives Are More Productive Than Normal Companies (Chen, 2016) 
  3. Participation and Productivity: A Comparison of Worker Cooperatives and Conventional Firms in the Plywood Industry, John Pencavel
  4. Worker Owned Coops – https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/worker-cooperatives-economy-business/

Videos

  1. The Mondragon Cooperatives 3 minutes
  2. Noam Chomsky on the Mondragon Cooperatives and Worker’s Council – 3 minutes
  3. Defying the Crisis – The Spanish Collective Mondragón | Made in Germany
  4. Jackson Rising: Creating the Mondragon of the South – 8 minutes
  5. The Cleveland Model – How the Evergreen Cooperatives are Building Community Wealth (All of videos on this site)

II Cooperatively Owned Housing and Food: Coop Housing

Required Reading:

  1. https://www.cccd.coop/sites/default/files/resources/HousingCoopsAccessibleLastingHomeOwnership.pdf
  2. Housing Coops: Case Study form Denmark

Videos

  1. Co-op Housing more than a home – 8 minutes

III Food Cooperatives

Required Reading:

  1. Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn, NY – https://www.grubstreet.com/2018/04/history-of-the-park-slope-food-coop.html
  2. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/11/25/the-grocery-store-where-produce-meets-politics – New Yorker Magazine
  3. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/nyregion/25coop.html
  4. Rainbow Grocery in Bay Area – https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/S-F-s-Rainbow-Grocery-a-counterculture-6433041.php#photo-8391702

IV Digital Platform Cooperatives

Required Reading: 

  1. StocksyUnited https://start.coop/additional-resources/case-study-stocksy-united/