Building Sustainable Local Economies
Preliminary Reading List

General Readings

An Economics of Peace
Essays by E. F. Schumacher, Wendell Berry and Susan Witt
Three essays that sound a clear call for alternative economic systems as a means to a lasting peace the world over.

Cities and the Wealth of Nations, by Jane Jacobs
Article published in The Atlantic Monthly, March 1984

The Economy of Regions, by Jane Jacobs
1983 E.F. Schumacher Lectures

Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age (excerpts)
by Michael Shuman (Routledge, 1998/2000)


Land: The Community Land Trust Model

Land: Challenge and Opportunity, by Robert Swann and Susan Witt
Describes various working applications of the community land trust approach to land tenure, including affordable housing, affordable access to land for farmers, ecologically based land use planning, and safe-guarding of traditionally used lands by and for indigenous peoples.

A New Lease On Farmland: Assuring a Future for Farming in the Northeast
Published by the E. F. Schumacher Society
A guide to using the Community Land Trust model to ensure that farmland is used productively and sustainably over the long-term.

Capitalism, the Commons, and Divine Right, by Peter Barnes
2003 E. F. Schumacher Lecture
A look at the potential for expanding the role and the rights of the commons. Barnes suggests that commons should be held in trusts for the benefit of current and future generations, as a way of countering the power of the market and its search for short-term private profits.

The Wisdom That Builds Community, by Greg Watson
1997 E. F. Schumacher Lecture
Greg Watson tells the story of the Dudley Street Community Land Trust, which reinvigorated neighborhood pride and now supports hundreds of units of renovated owner-occupied homes, a productive greenhouse, and locally-owned businesses.

Community Partnership Saves Family Farm, by Susan Witt
Published in In Business, March/April 2000

Indian Line Farm Land Use Plan
An example land use plan used to clarify the possible uses, and limits to use, on a piece of land held in a community land trust.


Capital: Creating Community Financing Systems

Printing Money, Making Change: The Future of Local Currencies, by Susan Witt
Published in Orion Afield, Autumn 1998

Local Currencies: Catalysts for Sustainable Regional Economies, by Robert Swann and Susan Witt, February 1995.

Local Currencies in the 21st Century, by Susan Witt and Christopher Lindstrom
Published in In Business, July/August 2004

Building Sustainable Local Communities: Tools and Concepts for Self-Reliant Economic Change (Bootstrap Press, 1989/1997)
"Building a Community Banking System" by Robert Swann

Congressional Testimony about SHARE before the House Select Committee on Hunger (1988)

What's Your Money Doing Tonight? by Fred Zahradnik
Published in New Farm, January 1984


Labor: Self-management and Diversification of Wealth

A Direct Stake in Economic Life: Worker-owned Firms
An excerpt from America Beyond Capitalism, by Gar Alperovitz (Wiley, 2005)

Building Sustainable Local Communities: Tools and Concepts for Self-Reliant Economic Change (Bootstrap Press, 1989/1997)
"Workplace Democratization" and "Worker-managed Enterprises" by George Benello


Additional Readings for 2006 Seminar:

Small is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered, by E.F. Schumacher
Chapter 3: The Role of Economics and Chapter 5: A Question of Size (Blond & Briggs, 1973).

Home! A Bioregional Reader, excerpts by Peter Berg, Gary Snyder, and Doug Aberley, (New Society Publishers, 1990).

The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, by Karl Polanyi (Beacon Press, 1944/2001)
Chapter 6: The Self-Regulating Market and the Fictitious Commodities: Labor, Land, and Money

Modern Money Mechanics: A Workbook on Bank Reserves and Deposit Expansion, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, (1992). Pgs. 1-11.

From the Ground Up: Essays on Grassroots & Workplace Democracy
Chapter 8: The Challenge of Mondragon, by George Benello (South End Press,1992).

Co-ops and Post-Corporate Activism, by Keith Wright, Earth Island Journal, Summer 2001.

A Revolution in Every Cup! by Elizabeth Schwartzapfel, Rhode Island Monthly, April 2006.

Historic Foundations of Cooperative Philosophy, by Greg Lawless, Bulletin, University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives, September 2003.

Worker Cooperatives, by Jody Padgham, Bulletin, University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives, November 2002.