Communal and Cooperative Resources

There are lots of resources on the various types of community, cooperatives, and cooperative behavior out there. Here are a few useful items:

A wonderful book on building community of all kinds is Circles of Strength, edited by Helen Forsey. (Except for the Emma Goldman quote, all my other 'Quote of the day' quotes for today and the other recent community focused posts are drawn from this book.)

Laird Schaub has a blog on Community and Consensus which, while focused on intentional community, often has relevance for most kind of communities and cooperatives, not to mention cooperation in general.

Tom Atlee's various sites (see my post of 9/16/08) have lots of information useful to community building of all types, as does my post on Catalysts and Network Weavers (8/31/08). Valdis Krebs and June Holley along with their colleague, Jack Ricchiuto, have a blog on Network Weaving which contains a lot of their current thinking and interests and is worth perusing.

Community organizing has been the focus of some controversy lately. Saul Alinsky was one of the founding and more controversial community organizers and his books, Rules for Radicals and Reveille for Radicals are classics. A good online introduction to community organizing is The Citizen's Handbook.

For anyone interested in the various types of cooperatives, a good place to start is the International Co-operative Alliance. Also check out the National Cooperative Business Association.

For resources specifically oriented toward various types of intentional community, see my post of 10/6/08.

And, of course, if anyone has other community and/or cooperative resources, please share.


Quote of the day: "Connection, caring, trust, enduring dependable relationships, generosity of spirit, and delight in difference--these are the values of healthy community. To create the fundamental social changes that will enable us to live in harmony with each other and with the Earth, it is imperative to reclaim and restore community." - Margo Adair and Sharon Howell
Word (or phrase) of the day: General Systems Theory
Hero(es) of the day: The Paris Commune