Co-ops Need Leaders, Too

Jan. 20, 2019

I frequently encounter a notion, among those drawn to cooperatives, that a cooperative should be an amorphous, faceless collective in which old-world skills and norms of leadership can be discarded. How does this work out for them? Not well. Usually one of two entirely predictable things happens as a result—and...

Organizations as Abstractions Over the Law

Jan. 9, 2019

The law, perhaps by definition, lags behind people working for social change. I certainly found this over and over in the next-generation cooperative projects I profiled in Everything for Everyone . One co-op in Catalonia was, legally, a mishmash of entities that presented themselves as if they were a coherent...

By Katy Fetters

Notes on Collective Governance

Jan. 6, 2019

Those of us looking to shape our enterprises with methods for collective governance and shared ownership are led to ask: What can collective governance look like? What shape does that take? What are some of the challenges and freedoms presented in this model? We spoke with several cooperative-minded experts who...

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