Collaborative Governance

Alongside whatever else mothers and sons talk about, I have begun receiving regular updates on the governance of my mother’s neighborhood garden club. They make me jealous. The club has survived from the heyday of suburban housewives—which my mother, as a retired government employee, never was. She is currently her...

On December 5, 2020, we met with key stakeholders from the Rocky Mountain Mutual Aid Network (RMMAN) to discuss the organizational structure and potential future impact of RMMAN. The stakeholders at RMMAN worked to answer questions about RMMAN’s organizational design: How are decisions made? Who makes the decisions? Who gets...

One of the most inspiring outgrowths of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the rise of local relief efforts under the banner of "mutual aid" and a commitment to "solidarity, not charity." These groups seek to address the impacts of the pandemic while also working for transformative social change. Their work...

Isn’t it weird that the radically democratic miracle of open-source collaboration is so full of monarchical dictatorships? Take your pick of projects; “benevolent dictators” are everywhere. Linux has Linus Torvalds, WordPress has Matt Mullenweg, and Ethereum has Vitalik Buterin—all of them founders poised to enjoy (or not) lifelong, absolute authority...

Friday, May 8, 2020 10-11:00 a.m. Mountain Time Webinar View the video recording of the event here and Sita Magnuson's graphic recording here . In the new world made by the coronavirus, there has been a lot of discussion recently about online collaboration and work. But what about governance? If...

How can startups create truly empowered communities? A growing network of entrepreneurs, organizers, and investors is exploring the idea of “Exit to Community”—enabling startups to transition toward ownership by their core stakeholders. There are many possible pathways towards this goal, as well as many challenges along the way. But one...

November 18, 2019 3-4:30 p.m. Mountain Time CASE E422 Activist Stacco Troncoso introduces the Decentralized Cooperative Organization Listen to the conversation here. Too often, the necessary care work that generates and sustains our lives occurs at the margins of the economy, unaccounted for and under-recognized. Spain-based activist Stacco Troncoso is...

Alphonse Desjardins (photo by Vista Stamps, used without permission) I have been trying for some time to put my finger on the difference—between the stories of co-op origins I read about for years while working on my book, Everything for Everyone , and what I encounter among many larger cooperatives...

In recent years, I have struggled to call myself an advocate for those with cerebral palsy. I’ve struggled to understand what that means both online and offline in the disability community. What do I advocate for? Whom do I advocate for? While attempting to answer these questions, I’ve come to...

Part of the appeal in being a worker on new gig-economy platforms like Uber or Taskrabbit is the apparent autonomy, the feeling of not having a boss. Sure, an app on your phone is your new boss, and through it a large, transnational corporation whose investors want nothing more than...