UMass Econ for the 99%
Occupy Economics from Softbox on Vimeo.
Registration info for Econ397EC, Spring 2012!
Registration for Spring 2012 is officially underway! The popular Econ397EC– Economics of Cooperative Enterprises– will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4-5:15 pm. Prerequisites: Econ 103 or 104, or permission from Professor Jerry Friedman. (Though he’s not officially teaching the course this Spring, he’s kindly offered to be the contact person until the instructor is finalized.)
Course syllabus from this fall can be found here.
Highlights from this weekend’s ICAPE conference
This weekend, UMass hosted the third conference of the International Confederation of Associations for Pluralism in Economics (ICAPE). The theme: Rethinking economics in a time of economic distress. Especially relevant to UMass Econ’s new certificate program were discussions around economic democracy in the classroom and community. Click here to download the conference program.
Women’s co-ops & peace-building in Nepal
On Saturday morning, Smita Ramnarain gave an extremely informative talk about women’s cooperatives, gender & “bottom-up” peace-building in Nepal. In 2008-2009, Ramnarain worked on a project called Developing Democracy in Nepal which was funded by the Canadian Co-operative Association and CIDA. In addition to forming women’s savings and credit cooperatives, the DDN project included advocacy & voter education campaigns. Ramnarain’s findings, via methodological awesomeness (case study analysis, interviews, evaluation reports, training materials, Hamro Aviyan documents, and her own research on women’s cooperatives):
women’s cooperatives in Nepal…
- foster solidarity among women in the community;
- empower women in household bargaining
Overall, a fascinating presentation. 
Click to download powerpoint slides from a talk Smita gave in September on women’s co-ops & peace-building in Nepal.
Roundtable on worker ownership
This morning, Erik Olsen chaired a roundtable called “Worker Cooperatives, Employee Ownership and New Strategies for a Pluralist Economy.” Joining Olsen in conversation were Al Campbell, Christopher Gunn, Gar Alperovitz, and David Schweickart.
(L to R): Christopher Gunn, Gar Alperovitz, David Schweickart, Al Campbell
It was a fruitful conversation about the role of co-ops and ESOPs in democratizing the work process & people’s lives. Christopher Gunn talked about Mondragon within the context of community development, and made a case for investing in resources that encourage affective activity (i.e. caring for children and elders; consuming less, having more free time). Gar Alperowitz talked about the stabilizing effects of community-based institutions partnering with local government, with examples from Cleveland, Columbus, and other US cities. David Schweickart focused on the transition to democratic capital and labor — what the US might try and what we can learn from Sweden. Al Campbell talked about the importance of solidarity, and creating space for folks to respect each other even when they might disagree. He praised Mondragon’s training programs for this sort of skill-building.
After the roundtable, Mary Hoyer and Julie Matthaei contributed immensely to the discussion. Hoyer astutely pointed out the importance of diversity if a democratic economy is to be representative. And that goes for panels, too! Matthaei highlighted the commonalities between affective activity and the work that’s come from the feminist and green movements around care labor & shrinking the carbon footprint. A fantastic quote from Matthaei (but I might not have copied it perfectly): “In the 1970s, consciousness-raising was done after work. Now, co-ops themselves are consciousness-raising.” Matthaei noted the connection between movements and values in why she loves the solidarity economy: shared values (i.e. feminist, anti-discrimination, anti-racist, etc) but not a one-size-fits-all prescription.
Alperowitz recommends www.community-wealth.org for more information on community wealth-building.
Mary Hoyer mentioned a new Chamber of Commerce in the Pioneer Valley that’s geared toward co-ops. [edit: it's the Valley Co-operative Business Association, and here's the link!]
For more info on the Solidarity Economy, check out the US Solidarity Economy Network.
Paul Hawken’s book, Blessed Unrest, came up in conversation.
-MICHELLE R.
October is co-op month!
Students in Econ397 are thinking up business plans…
Check out this brochure: “What is a Co-op?” It’s part of the toolkit created for Co-op Month by the National Planning Committee. Click here to learn more!
Welcome to UMCEC!
A collaboration between the Valley Alliance of Worker Cooperatives and UMass Amherst students and faculty, the UMass Amherst Cooperative Enterprises Collaborative (UMCEC) is dedicated to further learning and research about worker cooperatives, and to foster partnerships between academics and cooperators in the Pioneer Valley.
The Economics of Cooperative Enterprises
You can download the Spring 2011 course syllabus here. For more information about Econ 397, check out the course page.