This week, David Bollier writes about the promise and challenges of expanding the scope of what has been dubbed "the Commonsverse," a patchwork of commons and commoners that Bollier argues constitue a "dispersed but loosely coherent social order."
Then, Yuill Herber of worker co-op Sustainability Solutions Group talks with Dru Oja Jay about the co-op's history and their work with governments, universities, and other institutions to address climate planning challenges.
Challenges in Expanding the Commonsverse
by David Bollier
The piecemeal efforts to build a Commonsverse amounts to a quest to build a parallel polis...This essay explores a broad range of contemporary commons activities, the “ontological politics” they are engendering, and the challenges they face in expanding and institutionalizing commoning.
Working the Co-op and Trusting the Land
by Yuill Herbert
Yuill Herbert, a co-founder and long-time worker member at Sustainability Solutions Group, joins us to talk about life in an expanding co-op, and the 100-acre land trust he also helped start.
Congratulations, Detroit People’s Food Co-op!
Food Co-op Initiative — The opening of this Black-led, community-owned grocery store is truly historic. As they shared in a recent press release, the DPFC “is more than just a grocery store; it is a beacon of hope and resilience for the people of Detroit.” Detroit residents have long faced the consequences of historic redlining, disinvestment, and structural racism, including a lack of stable access to affordable, high-quality food. The DPFC aims to break this cycle while at the same time building Black food sovereignty within Detroit’s North End and beyond...
Community-owned business growth at highest level since the pandemic
Co-operative News — More new community-owned businesses opened across the UK in the last calendar year than at any other time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Plunkett UK. A report from the national charity, which supports rural community businesses, says that last year showed a 4% increase in the sector, with 32 new entities resulting in a total of 787 community-owned businesses trading by the end of December 2023...
A ‘Transcender Manifesto’ for a world beyond capitalism
LowImpact.org — We seek not to destroy capitalism, nor to reform it, but to transcend it – to consciously and rapidly evolve past it. We acknowledge its current hegemony, and accept that this arose as a result of its dynamism, adaptability, and ability to offer value to those who built it (while also recognising its inherent violence towards the people and places which it so forcibly transformed). But the law of diminishing returns has set in, and the future negatives now dangerously and imminently outweigh the historic positives...
2024 California Cooperative Conference
California Center for Cooperative Development — The 2024 California Cooperative Conference will convene in San Diego on May 31 and June 1. Mark your calendars and join us - registration is now available!...
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