Widening Spheres of Democracy

The 21st century has seen an explosion in Worker Cooperatives—particularly since capitalism’s 2008 crisis. In Part 1 of this 2-part series, UPSTREAM PODCAST explore how worker coops present a radically different kind of ownership and management structure—one that has the power to bring democracy into the workplace and into the economy as a whole. Upstream Podcast takes a deep dive into the cooperatively owned and run bike/skate shop Rich City Rides, exploring how they have created a community hub that puts racial & economic justice front and center. The podcast also takes a trip to the Basque Country to explore how the cooperative environment compares to that of the United States and the San Francisco Bay Area specifically.

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​Featuring

​Richard Wolff – Economics professor emeritus at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, founder of Democracy at Work, and host of the weekly radio show Economic Update

Gopal Dayaneni– Co-founder of Cooperation Richmond & Staff Member at Movement Generation

Doria Robinson– Founder of Urban Tilth and Co-Founder of Cooperation Richmond

Esteban Kelly – Executive Director of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives

Gorka Espiau – Senior Fellow at the Agirre Lehendakaria Center at the University of the Basque Country and Professor of Practice at McGill University

Najari Smith – Worker/member of Rich City Rides bike & skate shop

Roxanne Villaluz – Worker/member of a cooperative bakery & pizzeria

Sofa Gradin – Political Organizer and Lecturer in Politics at King’s College in London

Many thanks to Phil Wrigglesworth for the cover art.

 

Transcript

This part 1 of a 2-part series.

Listen to Part 2:

Worker Cooperatives Pt. 2

Islands Within a Sea of Capitalism

Shaping Neighborhoods

This April, the Quartier de l’Innovation and the McGill University Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Montreal (CIRM) invite you to try new experiential meetings focused on innovative local initiatives aimed at improving urban life.

Shaping Neighborhoods: Experience and Innovation is a series of “conference experiments” designed to encourage Quartier de l’Innovation communities to reconnect with the Quartier’s urban planning projects and spur discussion on its community projects, academic research and municipal programs. They are an opportunity to reflect as well as to develop and build a resilient neighborhood that’s open to its residents’ ideas. At each meeting, participants will visit a prominent location in the neighborhood and talk with local organizations that are rethinking their living environment. Contributors and academic researchers will also join the discussion to connect the actions undertaken locally to research conducted on these projects.

Why has place-making become necessary? Most places in most cities developed organically over time, as people and builders appropriated space, modelled it and gave it character. In this era where buildings and neighborhoods are built and torn down, rethinking architecture has become essential.

Date: April 17, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Meeting point: Wellington Control Tower (click here to see how to get there)

Academic Leader: Richard Shearmur, Director of the School of Urban Planning, McGill University

Program: Visit of the Wellington Control Tower, a research/action, dissemination and incubation venue with a café-bistro, which will serve as a meeting hub for all who are rethinking and building the city of today and tomorrow. The visit will be followed by a discussion in the Young Project transitory space created by Entremise.

Panelists:

• Ms. Pauline Butiaux, vice-president and treasurer, Manoeuvres / Wellington Control Tower
• Professor Gorka Espiau : professor pr practice, McConnell Foundation / CIRM 
• Mr. Philémon Gravel, co-founder, director of de urban planning, Entremise
• Mr. Jonathan Cha : urbanologist, landscape architect, heritage consultant, landscaping consultant for Jean-Drapeau Park, lecturer at UQAM and UdeM, co-founder of MTL\ville en mouvement, co-director at Le Virage MTL
• Ms. Carla Rangel Garcia and Ms. Marie-Philip Roy-Lasselle : Mont Réel project and ConstructLab Berlin

Wayfinder Istanbul

In 2017, Social Innovation Exchange hosted the first Wayfinder in London at a time when social innovation globally was at a crossroads. In some ways, social innovation has achieved a huge amount over the last decade. However, compared to the scale of the social challenges facing the world, this success is marginal. The London Wayfinder explored how we can create large scale, deep and systemic change over the next 10 years.

One year on, some progress has been made, but many of these challenges remain — we need to continue focusing on getting truly multi-sector, prioritizing people and planet, and supporting leadership rich social innovation ecosystems globally. With the support of local, regional and international partners, the Wayfinder is heading to Istanbul, Turkey to dive deeper into these calls of action from the inaugural Wayfinder.

Together, we will explore: how do we get to transformational change, such as achieving the SDGs? What more can be done to tackle systemic barriers to systemic change over the next ten years? Istanbul Wayfinder will build on two calls to action from London:

• Getting truly multi-sector in social innovation — with an emphasis on integrating corporate, government and philanthropic social innovation;
• Creating enabling platforms to enrich social innovation ecosystems — learning from around the world about the key conditions and overcoming barriers.

I am really honored to have been invited as a member of this selected group of 150 innovators, experts, and entrepreneurs from around the world and across Turkey, who have played, and will continue to play, a critical role in building the social innovation field.

As we embark on a shared global learning experience for two days, we will specifically be listening and learning to help inform a regional social innovation hub Istanbul — a unique historical crossroads of trade, information, culture and business flows between east and west.

Istanbul Wayfinder is convened by Social Innovation Exchange (SIX), hosted by Zorlu Holding, powered by imece, in knowledge partnership with ATÖLYE and S360, ‎and supported by UNDP Regional Hub Istanbul and Brookings Doha Centre.