Practicing Cooperation: Mutual Aid beyond Capitalism

by Andrew Zitcer

A powerful new understanding of cooperation as an antidote to alienation and inequality

From the crises of racial inequity and capitalism that inspired the Black Lives Matter movement and the Green New Deal to the coronavirus pandemic, stories of mutual aid have shown that, though cooperation is variegated and ever changing, it is also a form of economic solidarity that can help weather contemporary social and economic crises. Addressing this theme, Practicing Cooperation delivers a trenchant and timely argument that the way to a more just and equitable society lies in the widespread adoption of cooperative practices. But what renders cooperation ethical, effective, and sustainable? Providing a new conceptual framework for cooperation as a form of social practice, Practicing Cooperation describes and critiques three U.S.-based cooperatives: a pair of co-op grocers in Philadelphia, each adjusting to recent growth and renewal; a federation of two hundred low-cost community acupuncture clinics throughout the United States, banded together as a cooperative of practitioners and patients; and a collectively managed Philadelphia experimental dance company, founded in the early 1990s and still going strong. Through these case studies, Andrew Zitcer illuminates the range of activities that make contemporary cooperatives successful: dedicated practitioners, a commitment to inclusion, and ongoing critical reflection. In so doing he asserts that economic and social cooperation must be examined, critiqued, and implemented on multiple scales if it is to combat the pervasiveness of competitive individualism. Practicing Cooperation is grounded in the voices of practitioners and the result is a clear-eyed look at the lived experience of cooperators from different parts of the economy and a guidebook for people on the potential of this way of life for the pursuit of justice and fairness. 

258 pages, Paperback

Published November 2, 2021

Reviews

[Samantha Shain · Rating 5 out of 5]

In addition to being a fantastic primer for readers first encountering heterodox economies, the book serves up a platter of new ideas for co-op insiders. In particular, I appreciated his openness to organizational structures that are not explicitly incorporated as a cooperative but embody cooperative principles in their missions and practices. It’s no surprise that there is tremendous innovation on the margins and even outside of these narrowly defined boundaries, and that the “orthodox cooperative” movement may become a bit stale without incorporating flexibility into the model. That’s probably taking the argument a bit too far, since there is much value in the specificity of the cooperative framework, but at the same time, there is much to be learned from a broader cross-section of creatively managed firms and collectives that could strengthen the cooperative premise and expand the impact of cooperative and adjacent models. The way Dr. Zitcer modeled this is a gift to our movements and a lesson that I think we should all take seriously!

Another highlight - learning about POCA and the history/practice of explicitly radical public health.