Our broken economic model drives inequality and disempowerment, lining the pockets of corporations while extracting wealth from local communities. How can we reverse this? Joe Guinan and Martin O’Neill argue for an approach that uses the power of democratic participation to drive equitable development and ensure that wealth is widely shared. They show how this model – Community Wealth Building – can transform our economic system by creating a web of collaborative institutions, from worker cooperatives to community land trusts and public banks, that empower and enrich the many, not the few. This book is essential reading for everyone interested in building more equal, inclusive, and democratic societies.

Our broken economic model drives inequality and disempowerment, lining the pockets of corporations while extracting wealth from local communities. How can we reverse this? Joe Guinan and Martin O’Neill argue for an approach that uses the power of democratic participation to drive equitable development and ensure that wealth is widely shared. They show how this model – Community Wealth Building – can transform our economic system by creating a web of collaborative institutions, from worker cooperatives to community land trusts and public banks, that empower and enrich the many, not the few. This book is essential reading for everyone interested in building more equal, inclusive, and democratic societies.

Through a deep examination of what has become known as the ‘Preston Model’, this book explores an innovative approach to local economic development that utilises economic democratisation to realise both social and economic objectives. The first part of the book examines the main strands of the Preston Model framework and what makes it different to other urban regeneration schemes: the combination of local anchor institution procurement to generate and retain local wealth, and the development of cooperatives to fill gaps in local supply chains. The chapters in this section consider the Preston Model as viewed through different lenses: politics and society, community, economics, democracy, trade unionism, language and communication, education and transferability. The second part explores the influences and applications of the Preston Model, in theory and practice, in selected locations and various circumstances worldwide. This includes discussion of key ideas such as economic democracy, social enterprise and the creation of capacity for cooperative self-government, alongside essays on prominent international examples of similar approaches, which can inform and in turn be informed by the Preston Model. This book is essential reading for those interested in regional and national policy, economic democracy and alternative economic and political ideas.

How can we create and sustain an America that never was, but should be? How can we build a robust multiracial democracy in which everyone is valued and everyone possesses political, economic and social capital? How can democracy become a meaningful way of life, for all citizens? By critically probing these questions, the editors of Community Wealth Building and the Reconstruction of American Democracy seize the opportunity to bridge the gap between our democratic aspirations and our current reality.

Paint Your Town Red tells the story of how one city in the north of England decided to level up without waiting for Whitehall. Across the world, there is a growing recognition that a new kind of economy is needed: more democratic, less exploitative, less destructive of society and the planet. Paint Your Town Red looks at how wealth can be generated and shared at a local level through the experience of one of the main advocates of the new Democratic Economy, Matthew Brown, the driving-force behind the world-recognized Preston Model. Using analysis, interviews and case studies to explain what Matthew and Preston City Council have done over the last decade in order to earn Preston the title of Most Improved City, the book shows how the model can be adapted to fit different local circumstances, as well as demonstrating how Preston itself adapted economic and democratic experiments in ‘community wealth-building’ from elsewhere in the US and Europe. Preston’s success shows that the ideas of community wealth-building work in practice and have the capacity to achieve a meaningful transfer of wealth and power back to local communities. A lot of recent coverage and references have tended to oversimplify the Preston Model, which is not just about ‘buying local’ but a comprehensive project, which envisions local and regional discussions and collaboration adding up to a wholesale transformation of our currently failing economic systems.

Strategies for creating real estate wealth by star ting small--and always making the right moves Nationally known real estate expert John Schaub learned his craft in the best way possible--on the job, and through every kind of market. Over three decades, he learned to bank consistent profits as he built an impressive real estate mini-empire. Building Wealth One House at a Time reveals how virtually anyone can accumulate one million dollars worth of houses debtfree and earn a steady cash flow for life. Unique in that it focuses on buying houses in good-quality neighborhoods, Schaub's nine-step program includes: Renting to long-term tenants, with financial incentives to pay on time Avoiding the temptation of bigger deals, which invariably include bigger problems A 10-year plan to pay off debt and own houses free and clear

This book calls for a bold forward-looking social policy that addresses continuing austerity, under-resourced organisations and a lack of social solidarity. Based on a research programme by the Webb Memorial Trust, a key theme is power which shows that the way forward is to increase people’s sense of agency in building the society that they want.