Check out the new report Cooperatizing Boston: Advancing Municipal Support for Worker Ownership, just released by the Center for Economic Democracy’s Solidarity Economy Initiative. I helped advise this project and its main author Erwin Li, who is a recent master’s degree graduate of Tufts Department of Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning. The project was supported by a seed grant from the Tisch College Community Research Center at Tufts.
Launch Post from CED:
October is National Cooperative Month, and we are thrilled to announce the release of Cooperatizing Boston, a groundbreaking report that explores how municipal policies can cultivate worker-owned cooperatives across Boston. As our city grapples with widening inequity, displacement, newly arrived immigrants seeking employment and a wave of retiring small business owners, this report lays the path toward economic resilience and prosperity for all. Cooperatizing Boston reimagines Boston’s economy as one built on shared ownership, cooperation, and community wealth, redefining how we think about economic development.
Cooperatizing Boston, commissioned by the Solidarity Economy Initiative, lays out strategic recommendations for expanding Boston’s municipal support for worker-owned cooperatives, offering a vision where local government and grassroots leaders collaborate deeply toward a new economy. It highlights how worker-owned coops have tripled in Massachusetts over the last decade, showing that cooperative models can flourish even in times of economic crisis. Imagine a Boston where businesses are owned by their workers, where decision-making is democratic, and where wealth is shared equitably with communities of color, immigrants, and working-class residents.
We invite you to dive into this visionary report, explore the powerful recommendations, and be part of a collective effort to build a Boston economy that prioritizes people over profits.
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