UK Co-operative Party Releases Report Outlining Plans to Double the Size of Co-op Sector
By Aaron Fernando, Shareable
On July 3, the Co-operative Party in the U.K. launched a report at parliament outlining a strategy to double the size of the U.K.'s cooperative sector by 2030. The report, written by the think tank New Economics Foundation (NEF), was commissioned by the Co-operative Party and comprises a vision of the party's goals.
Blockchain as a Force for Good: How this Technology could Transform the Sharing Economy
By Aaron Fernando, Shareable
When we find ourselves in a world fully immersed in blockchain, we will find that it is a permanently transformed one — one where cooperatives, schools, and neighborhood groups have many of the same technological advantages as governments and multinational corporations.
How Indigenous Land-Use Practices Inform the Current Sharing Economy
By Aaron Fernando, Shareable
Affordable housing-related CLTs are probably best-known, but this model can be applied for any community goal, including lowering costs for small businesses and ensuring local food production. Though the CLT model has been re-emerging since the late 1960s, it is actually somewhat of a return to indigenous practices around ownership of land and resources.
The English City With Its Own Cryptocurrency: Q&A With the Founders of HullCoin
By Aaron Fernando, Shareable
The staff at the nonprofit organization HullCoin has done something very unusual in the city of Hull in northeast United Kingdom. They've launched their own local cryptocurrency — programmed on top of Bitcoin to be issued by nonprofits and social institutions — as a way of combating financial exclusion and other problems that are at the root of poverty. Residents of Hull can earn HullCoins, which can be used at various places around the city. It's an innovative model. But how exactly does it work?
Can Video Games Help Shape Cities and Economies of the Future?
By Aaron Fernando, Shareable
Can virtual worlds transform the world we live in? That question isn't just something high school kids ask — it's a question that professionals across industries are actively asking today. In her TED talk, game designer Karoliina Korppoo explains how player-generated virtual cities could shape the cities we live and work in. Korppoo is the lead designer of the game Cities: Skylines by Finnish game studio Colossal Order, which is designed to provide a realistic urban planning experience for players.
Cooperative Economics in African-American Communities
By Aaron Fernando, Shareable
n her engrossing TED Talk, business owner Niki Okuk explores three key themes: racism, economic oppression, and privilege, and how they relate to cooperate economics. Okuk, who runs tire recycling company Rco Tires, shares her personal story of starting the business, but puts it in larger, historical context.
This Massachusetts Town Shows What a Sustainable Economy Looks Like
By Aaron Fernando, Shareable
For more than three decades, the town of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, has quietly demonstrated how grassroots, sustainable, and human-centric projects could easily become the building blocks of the next economy.
How One City in Spain Launched a Local Currency
By Aaron Fernando, Shareable
Though the community currency failed to materialize in Barcelona, the city immediately to its northeast, Santa Coloma de Gramanet, created a local currency this year. This currency — the grama — was designed to be an innovative way of enabling the city’s residents to protect their livelihoods from external economic threats