Community Economies

Links


Resource Hubs

  • Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO). An extensive source of stories and ideas about cooperative economic projects in the US and beyond.

  • Shareable.net. News and ideas about sharing, commoning and building community.

  • Community-Wealth.org. In-depth resources about asset-based and democratic forms of community economic development.

  • Sheepless.org. News about work to build local economies.

  • Yes! Magazine. Stories of practical actions to build more equitable and sustainable communities.

 

Commons

  • On The Commons. A great resource for general information about "commons" and for stories about commoning movements.

  • The Commoner. Radical theory and analysis in the service of commoning struggles.

  • Digital Library of the Commons. A huge resource of academic materials on commons, common-pool resources and common property.

  • Creative Commons. A commons alternative to copyright.

  • Archive.org. An online commons of music, books and other forms of shared knowledge.

  • Wikipedia. The online common encyclopedia.

  • Ubuntu and Linux Mint are two forms of Debian-based open-source (commons) operating system software (say goodbye to Microsoft!). 

 

 Cooperatives

  • Cultivate.coop. A wiki for everything on cooperatives, cooperation and cooperative economics.

  • International Cooperative Alliance. ICA is an independent, non-governmental association which unites, represents and serves co-operatives worldwide. Founded in 1895, ICA has 258 member organisations from 96 countries active in all sectors of the economy. Together these co-operatives represent nearly one billion individuals worldwide.

  • 2012: International Year of Cooperatives. The UN has declared 2012 as an international year of cooperatives to raise awareness about their social benefits.

  • U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives. A national alliance of more than 200 worker-owned co-ops in the United States.

  • Australian Cooperatives. A site listing some resources for cooperative development in Australia.

  • Centre for the Study of Co-operatives University of Saskatchewan (Canada). This Canadian site includes a resource centre, virtual library, links, conferences as well as outlining the centre's research which has an agricultural focus.

  • University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives

  • Cooperative Development Institute (Northeast U.S.). CDI's mission is to build a cooperative economy through the creation and development of successful cooperative enterprises and networks in diverse communities in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island and New York.

  • Cheticamp's Co-ops (Canada)The 10 cooperatives run by the Cheticamp community provide over 300 jobs for this isolated town.

  • Miminegash Seaside Cooperative (Canada). In response to the collapse of the staple local industry, local women banded together to create green jobs from local resources.

  • Mondragon (Spain). The Mondragon Cooperative has been in existence for 40 years and is now a huge enterprise. Located in the Basque region it is an outstanding example of what cooperatives can achieve.

Community Currency

 

Community Food Systems

 

 Community Economic Development

 

Community-Building and Community Development

 

Case Studies

  • Case Studies of Sustainable Communities This website has case studies of initiatives in the Unites States that integrate environmental, economic and social goals. Click on the map of Hawai'i on the Sustainable Communities index page to have a look at the Wai'anae Backyard Aquaculture Project, a community-based non-profit corporation providing financial and technical assistance to help families raise sunfish as a means of promoting local self-sufficiency and nutrition.

  • CERES Community Environmental Park (Australia). The Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies is a non-profit organisation concerned with sustainability, social equity, cultural richness and community participation. It has an annual budget of over $A1.2 mill, and employs 25 equivalent full-time positions.

  • FarmFolk-CityFolk (Canada). A not-for-profit group that strives to connect people and organisations by focusing on food.  They are committed to the development and maintenance of a just and sustainable food system.