XIII. Cooperative Economics and Creating Community Where You Are On the three-legged stool of sustainability, less attention has been given to economics than to the more robust ecological and social dimensions. But that doesn't mean it's less important. (It's hard to keep a stool upright with only two legs.) Half the articles in this bundle are focused on what we're learning about values-based ways to make a living (which is a quality of life issue if there ever was one). The other stories are devoted to taking the inspiration of community beyond the boundary of shared property. If you figure that there are only 100,000 people in the US living in some form of self-identified intentional community, yet 100 million wanting a greater sense of community in their life, it's obvious that we should be exporting what we're learning to neighborhoods, churches, schools, and workplaces almost everywhere. Half of the 20 articles in this bundle focus on that expansive task. This Digital Issue of Cooperative Economics and Creating Community Where You Are includes: 1. Recipe for a Thriving Community by Jonathan Dawson, #119 2. Regaining Our Sense of Oneness through Localization by Helena Norberg-Hodge, #154, 15-16 . 3. Our Own Money: A Recipe for Local Economic Revival (including Local Currencies, Stephen Burke) by by Albert Bates, #133 4. When a Dollar Is Worth More than 100 Cents by Gwynelle Dismukes, #136 5. Social Class & Money in Community by Allen Hancock, #98 6. Our Community Revolving Loan Fund: How Walnut Street Co-op Financed Its Property by Tree Bressen, #128 7. Inventing a Rural Economy, Business by Business: How The Farm Lost its Community Subsidy and Formed a Stable Economy in Its Place by Douglas Stephenson, #116 8. Self-Reliance, Right Livelihood, and Economic "Realities" Finding Peace in Compromise by Abeja Hummel, #158 9. Communities That Serve Others...and Love Doing It by Darin Fenger, #131 10. Free to Serve: Notes from a Needs-Based Economy by Chris Foraker, #141 11. Householding: Communal Living on a Small Scale by Elizabeth Barrette, #144 12. Balancing Act: How Much Are You Willing to Share? by Janel Healy, #152 13. The Values of Shared Ownership by Tim Miller, #159 14. The Quest for Community: A Personal Journey into the Grey Zone by Tree Bressen, #139 15. Gardens of Gratitude: ATwo-Day Garden Party Blitz in L.A. by Ginny LeRossignol Blades, #144 16. Chicken a la West Birch Avenue by Hilary Giovale, #142 17. Lighten Up: A Community Energy-Reduction Experiment by Kelly Barth, #143 18. What Are the Boundaries of an Intentional Community? An Experiment in Geographically-Dispersed Community-Building by Don Schneider and Elin England, #143 19. Greening Your H'Hood David Leach, #157 20. Let's Do Greywater First! by Laura Dvorak and J. Brush, #137

In Collective Courage, Jessica Gordon Nembhard chronicles African American cooperative business ownership and its place in the movements for Black civil rights and economic equality. Not since W. E. B. Du Bois’s 1907 Economic Co-operation Among Negro Americans has there been a full-length, nationwide study of African American cooperatives. Collective Courage extends that story into the twenty-first century. Many of the players are well known in the history of the African American experience: Du Bois, A. Philip Randolph and the Ladies' Auxiliary to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Nannie Helen Burroughs, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Jo Baker, George Schuyler and the Young Negroes’ Co-operative League, the Nation of Islam, and the Black Panther Party. Adding the cooperative movement to Black history results in a retelling of the African American experience, with an increased understanding of African American collective economic agency and grassroots economic organizing. To tell the story, Gordon Nembhard uses a variety of newspapers, period magazines, and journals; co-ops’ articles of incorporation, minutes from annual meetings, newsletters, budgets, and income statements; and scholarly books, memoirs, and biographies. These sources reveal the achievements and challenges of Black co-ops, collective economic action, and social entrepreneurship. Gordon Nembhard finds that African Americans, as well as other people of color and low-income people, have benefitted greatly from cooperative ownership and democratic economic participation throughout the nation’s history.

How to research, visit, evaluate, and join the ecovillage or sustainable community of your dreams. Finding community is as critical as obtaining food and shelter, since the need to belong is what makes us human. The isolation and loneliness of modern life have led many people to search for deeper connection, which has resulted in a renewed interest in intentional communities. These intentional communities or ecovillages are an appealing choice for like-minded people who seek to create a family-oriented and ecologically sustainable lifestyle—a lifestyle they are unlikely to find anywhere else. However, the notion of an intentional community can still be a tremendous leap for some—deterred perhaps by a misguided vision of eking out a hardscrabble existence with little reward. In fact, successful ecovillages thrive because of the combined skills and resources of their members. Finding Community presents a thorough overview of ecovillages and intentional communities and offers solid advice on how to research thoroughly, visit thoughtfully, evaluate intelligently, and join gracefully. Useful considerations include: Important questions to ask (of members and of yourself) Signs of a healthy (and not-so-healthy) community Cost of joining (and staying) Common blunders to avoid Finding Community provides intriguing possibilities to readers who are seeking a more cooperative, sustainable, and meaningful life. Diana Leafe Christian is the author of Creating a Life Together and editor of Communities magazine. She lives at Earthhaven Ecovillage in North Carolina.

Advocates for citizen-led, community-based action first and foremost, instead of waiting for government to take action on climate change. From small solutions to the full re-invention of the systems we find ourselves in, Ludwig mixes anecdote with data-based research to offer readers a wide range of options that all embody compassion, creativity, and cooperation. --Adapted from publisher description.

A helpful and practical tool for leaders of residential cooperatives in Florida. It is the only complete guide to their operations and management, and it gives special attention to the unique components of mobile home cooperatives.