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What can the history of cooperation teach us about building a stronger cooperative movement today?

October is Co-op Month, and this year's theme is Built for This Moment.

To kick off our special four-part Co-op Month series, host Tara Williams is joined by CooperationWorks! Executive Director and guest co-host Alex Stone for a conversation with Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard — educator, political economist, organizer, author, and Cooperative Hall of Fame inductee.

In This Episode

• The history of African American cooperatives and their role in building community economic power
• The importance of recognizing and building on existing cooperative practices
• How education, research, and storytelling can strengthen the cooperative movement
• What cooperative developers can learn from past successes and challenges

Dr. Jessica Gordon Nembhard is a political economist, educator, community organizer, and Cooperative Hall of Fame inductee.

Her research and teaching focus on cooperative economics, community economic development, economic justice, and the ways communities build collective economic power.

Through her scholarship and organizing, Jessica has helped make cooperative history more visible and accessible to a new generation of cooperative developers and movement builders.

Resources mentioned

Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice

John Jay College

Cooperative Hall of Fame

Federation of Southern Cooperatives

Ella Jo Baker

Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta

Freedom Quilting Bee

Frank Adams

For All the People: Uncovering the Hidden History of Cooperation, Cooperative Movements, and Communalism in America, John Curl

CooperationWorks! Art and Science Training

Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO)

Co-op Month at coopmonth.coop.

The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the individual guests and do not necessarily reflect the views, positions, or policies of CooperationWorks!