Resource Library

The Democracy at Work Institute is building a comprehensive Resource Library that will include a wide range of materials, including academic papers, start-up toolkits, curriculum samples, actual documents from existing worker cooperatives, and more. The topic list below provides a map of the resources that will be available. We are also continuing to publish additional resources on a daily basis.

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Recently Added Resources

Social Development in an Uncertain World: UNRISD Research Agenda 2010–2014

Author(s): 
UNRISD
Year: 
2010
The UNRISD research agenda for 2010–2014 is grounded in a particular understanding of social development, including not only improvements in material well-being but also progress in relation to equity, social cohesion and democratic participation. Over the past decade, UNRISD research has focused on how social policy contributes to development.

Social Coops and Social Care: An Emerging Role for Civil Society

Author(s): 
John Restakis
Year: 
2000
Over the last twenty years, a profound change has taken place in the relationship between citizens and their governments. In the western democracies, the gradual transformation of social care into a commercial commodity has fundamentally altered the role of government as the primary provider of social care and public welfare. This change in the relations between the state and the citizenry has been marked by starkly different perspectives, deep conflict, and the radical realignment of social and state institutions.

Self-Direction and Employee Ownership: Working Paper

Author(s): 
Ownership Associates, Inc.
Year: 
1998
The initial draft of this paper was written in response to a request for research on the relationship between self-direction in the workplace, employee ownership, and organizational outcomes. It outlines three aspects of shared decision-making: autonomy, participation, and influence. It then explores the relationship between two of those aspects (autonomy and participation) and a series of productivity-related cultural norms, including ownership identity.

Sustainable Economic Democracy: Worker Cooperatives for the 21st Century

Author(s): 
Nicholas Luviene, Amy Stitely, Lorlene Hoyt
Year: 
2010
This guide explores the worker cooperative network as a neighborhood, municipal and regional strategy for generating wealth. It presents two examples: the well-established Mondragon Complex in Spain and the nascent Evergreen Cooperative Initiative in Cleveland Ohio. Drawing from these two cases the authors then put forth a general framework for building a scalable cooperative network in post-industrial American cities.

Concept Paper: Asset Building through Cooperative Business Ownership: Defining and Measuring Cooperative Economic Wealth

Author(s): 
Jessica Gordon Nembhard
Year: 
2008
Many cooperative studies scholars and co-op practitioners believe that successful cooperative businesses create wealth and help their members accumulate wealth and/or assets. Individual asset building or wealth accumulation is assumed to be an outcome from cooperative ownership, in addition to individual and community benefits such as job creation, education and training, income generation, affordable quality products, social capital development, and economic stability.

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