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Catalyzing worker co-ops & the solidarity economy

Western Europe

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November 6, 2023

The Spanish Civil War: Lessons in Economic Democracy

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The Spanish Civil War and Revolution of 1936 was arguably the 20th century’s greatest experiment in economic democracy. Seizing the opportunity opened by the conflict between the Spanish Republic and right-wing Nationalists, Spain’s workers and peasants built a new economy in the midst of the chaos. 

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October 30, 2023

When Frederick Douglass Came to Rochdale a Slave and Left a Free Man

Summary

Douglass spoke at the Public Hall in Rochdale in 1846, five times between October 10 and 14, and twice more on November 10 and 11. On October 12, Douglass returned to Manchester to speak to 4,000 people at the Free Trade Hall.

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September 25, 2023

Mapping a Local Landscape of Care and Belonging

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Summary

Equal Care Coop and Clapton Commons are mapping a local landscape of care and support in Clapton Common, Upper Clapton. Using KUMU, a powerful system mapping platform, we are creating an interactive map that makes the often invisible grassroots networks of care and support more visible and accessible to people giving and receiving care.

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August 10, 2023

Activating the Unrealised Potential of Care Networks

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Summary

Equal Care's pilot in Commons-based care in Hackney builds on five years of work developing and delivering a ‘teams model’ of home care in Calderdale, Yorkshire.

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May 18, 2023

What Sweden Can Teach the U.S. About Overcoming the Housing Crisis

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Can studying cooperative housing in Sweden teach the U.S. how to overcome the moderate-income family housing crisis?

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May 15, 2023

Why is the Co-operative Movement so Strong in Emilia Romagna?

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Summary

Today I’m talking with Matt Hancock, who’s been heavily involved with the co-operative movement in Emilia Romagna – the region of Italy around Bologna. There’s a huge, very successful co-op sector in ER. I want to try to find out in this interview is why – what’s special about ER, and can it be emulated elsewhere?

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May 8, 2023

Owning Together: Worker-Consumer Co-ops in Conversation

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“Multi-stakeholder” co-ops have become popular in recent years, but what does it really mean to bring different groups together for common ownership and governance?

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April 27, 2023

Foster & Iaione Probe Commoning in the City

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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.

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April 10, 2023

Exploring Italian Social Cooperatives with Vera Negri Zamagni

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Summary

Last week’s seminar with guest speaker Professor Vera Zamagni explored the various forms of value generated by Italian social cooperatives.

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March 16, 2023

Putting Fairness into the Gig Economy

Summary

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, platform capitalism has expanded greatly in the
delivery sector. The consolidation of an oligopoly controlled by a few corporate platforms has led to
precarious working conditions for “gig economy” workers. Increasing protests and strikes have led to
the reform of labour directives and to the emergence of alternative ways of organising work through
platform cooperatives. This article examines how these emergent platform cooperatives are mobilised
and their challenges and implications. Barcelona, the cradle of many platform economy and delivery
sector start-ups, is a critical case for examining the recent birth of alternative delivery cooperatives.
This article is informed by the cases of three cooperatives, organised by those working as riders,
providing delivery services in the city of Barcelona: Mensakas, Les Mercedes, and 2GoDelivery. The
paper shows how the embeddedness of these nascent platform cooperatives in favourable governance
arrangements, a supportive social and solidarity movement, the knowledge and experience of
workers, and the territory where the cooperatives are embedded are essential for their creation. This
multi-layered embeddedness is necessary, but not sufficient, to explain how platform cooperatives
thrive. The study concludes that the agency of platform workers, who triggered this transformation,
was essential for the emergence of alternative ways of organising work in the platform economy.