Cooperative Management for a Changing World

This course will discuss leadership and management strategies in the areas of worker owned co-ops, consumer co-ops, community land trusts and worker directed enterprises. Students will assess and analyze different governance structures, and decision making models as well as how those models work in practice – whether through consensus or representative decision making models. In addition to learning about principles of “democratic control,” and “economic participation” students will explore how these principles are practiced in real life settings. Through readings, films, guest speakers and in-class workshops, students will both learn about the strengths and weaknesses of various governance models as they will be asked to analyze the inevitable conflicts that emerge in any cooperative enterprise (and especially conflicts associated with historic power inequalities, and structures of oppression). A significant part of the class will be dedicated to analyzing case studies within cooperative enterprises; how those situations emerge, how they were addressed, and what strategies members (worker-owners, residents, and members) used to remain accountable to cooperative principles. In addition, to examining different governance structures, the course will have students summarize concepts as: organizational change models, motivation, representative decision-making, self-directed work teams, consensus decision-making, non-violent communication, co-determination, conflict resolution, accountability, and the triple-bottom line. Students will choose a place or time to research where cooperative principles have emerged and prepare a project based research paper that compares and contrasts to the practices studied through the term.