Funding the Cooperative City: Community Finance and the Economy of Civic Spaces

Funding the Cooperative City explores experiments in community-led urban development in European cities. Situated in the post-welfare transition of European societies within the context defined by austerity measures, unemployment, the financialisation of real estate stocks and the gradual withdrawal of public administrations from social services, this book aims at highlighting the importance of self-organised, locally rooted, inclusive and resilient community networks and civic spaces.

In a journey from Lisbon, Madrid and Rome, via Liverpool, Rotterdam and Berlin, through Warsaw, Bratislava and Budapest, Funding the Cooperative City highlights different strategies of fundraising and investment; self-organisation, resistance and cooperation with institutions; and explores the ways citizen initiatives, cooperatives, non-profit companies, community land trusts, crowdfunding platforms, ethical banks and anti-speculation foundations step out of the regular dynamisms of real estate development and arrange new mechanisms to access, purchase, renovate or construct buildings for communities.

Through interviews and analyses, this book describes tendencies and contexts, and presents stories and models of community finance and civic economy. It offers a helpful set of resources not only for community organisations and initiators of civic spaces, but also for private developers, municipalities and EU institutions that are willing to support, facilitate or cooperate with them in order to create more resilient and inclusive local communities, facilities and services.

With contributions from Tiago Mota Saraiva (Ateliermob, Lisbon), Hanna Szemző (Metropolitan Research Institute, Budapest), Jan Mazur (Stará Tržnica, Bratislava), Bryan Boyer (Brickstarter, Helsinki), Carmen Lozano Bright (Goteo, Madrid), Alexandre Laing (Bulb in Town, Paris), Lizzy Daish (Shuffle Festival), Carlos Muñoz Sanchez (LaFabrika detodalavida, Los Saintos de Maimona), Christian Grauvogel (Mörchenpark e.V., Berlin), Massimo Marinacci (Banca Etica, Rome), Miguel Ángel Martinez Polo (Coop 57, Madrid), Rolf Novy-Huy (Stiftung trias, Hattingen), Ulrich Kriese (Stiftung Edith Maryon, Basel), Daniela Brahm and Les Schliesser (ExRotaprint, Berlin), Laurence Beuchat (Geneva), Michał Augustyn (Wymiennik, Warsaw), Martin Leskovjan (Paralelní Polis, Prague), Bea Varnai (UrbaMonde, Paris), Marc Neelen (Stad in de Maak, Rotterdam), Júlia Bársony (Müszi, Budapest), Viktória Rozgonyi-Kulcsár (Jurányi Ház, Budapest), Francesco Montagna and Maura Teofili (Carrozzerie n.o.t., Rome), Martine Zoeteman (De Besturing, The Hague), Annet van Otterloo (Afrikaanderwijk Coöperatie, Rotterdam), Hans Karssenberg and Jeroen Laven (ZoHo, Rotterdam), Tamina Lolev (Nod makerspace, Bucharest), Mauro Baioni (Pordenone), Miguel Correia de Brito (BIP/ZIP programme, Lisbon), Elly Townsend (Locality, London), Ulrich Möbius (Peißnitzhaus, Halle/Saale), Stefania de Masi (Cascina Roccafranca, Turin), Mauro Gil-Fournier (Vivero de Iniciativas Ciudadanas, Madrid)

You can download the full book here

cooperativecity.org/funding-the-cooperative-city/