In Communities’ “Networking Communities” issue (Fall 2018, #180), authors share their journeys in exploring and creating networks—among communitarians, among communities, even among networks of communities and among communities researchers.

The US SIF Foundation's 2018 biennial Report on US Sustainable, Responsible and Impact Investing Trends, released October 2018, found that sustainable, responsible and impact investing (SRI) assets now account for $12.0 trillion—or one in four dollars—of the $46.6 trillion in total assets under professional management in the United States. This represents a 38 percent increase over 2016.
 

There is an emerging opportunity to develop strategies related to land and housing that can help create inclusive, participatory, and sustainable economies built on locally-rooted, broad-based ownership of place-based assets. This report provides an overview of strategies and tools that, as a group, represent an innovative and potentially powerful new approach—one that establishes, in various ways, community control of land and housing.

This report examines the challenges and opportunities of worker cooperatives in the Chicagoland region. The paper discusses the need for worker cooperative development in Chicago, the current barriers cooperatives face to operating, and potential suggestions for local policy aimed at creating policies which would enable worker cooperatives to thrive. Supporting worker cooperative development could bring numerous advantages already proven in comparable cities – including growth of jobs, wages, and economic opportunity.

Produced through a partnership with Illinois Worker Cooperative Alliance and The John Marshall Law School-Chicago Business Enterprise Law Clinic.