{"id":780,"date":"2015-03-16T14:42:59","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T18:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/?p=780"},"modified":"2015-03-17T14:47:52","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T18:47:52","slug":"whats-the-true-impact-of-the-alternative-economy-researchers-decide-its-time-to-find-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bard.edu\/mba\/2015\/03\/16\/whats-the-true-impact-of-the-alternative-economy-researchers-decide-its-time-to-find-out\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the True Impact of the Alternative Economy? Researchers Decide It\u2019s Time to Find Out"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"In<\/a>
In the shared cellars at Jasper Hill Farm, cheese from their own creamery and others around the area ripen. Photo courtesy of Jasper Hill Farm.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And they found that successful initiatives are investing in human relationships, not faceless call centers or centralized headquarters.<\/p>\n

Eban Goodstein<\/a> & Robin Hahnel<\/a> posted Mar 03, 2015 on YES Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

It is increasingly apparent that today\u2019s economy is not working for most of us. Growing inequality of wealth and income is putting the famous American middle class in danger of becoming a distant memory. Most American children now face economic prospects worse than their parents enjoyed. We suffer from more frequent financial shocks and linger in recession far longer than in the past.Our education and health care systems don\u2019t stack up to those of other countries with similar living standards. And if all this were not enough, environmental destruction continues to escalate as we stand on the verge of triggering irreversible, and perhaps cataclysmic, climate change.<\/p>\n

One key lesson that emerges about these innovations is the importance of good, old-fashioned, face-to-face relationships.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yet, beneath the radar of the mainstream media, a diverse and energetic new generation of business models has cropped up in response to urgent, unmet needs. We\u2019re talking about innovations like\u00a0worker-owned cooperatives<\/a>,\u00a0credit unions<\/a>,community-supported agriculture<\/a>,\u00a0sharing platforms and businesses<\/a>, and\u00a0community energy enterprises<\/a>. (You may have seen organizations like this in the \u201cnew economy\u201d section of the YES! website. But in this project we are calling them part of a \u201cfuture\u201d rather than a \u201cnew\u201d economy because some initiatives, such as cooperatives, have been with us for centuries.)<\/p>\n

How important are these innovations? Doing something differently isn\u2019t inherently \u201cgood\u201d\u2014despite Americans\u2019 perennial love of the next new thing. How well do these models really perform when it comes to providing prosperity for their workers and others who depend on them? Do they really deliver on their promise of distributing social and financial benefits broadly while restoring the environment?<\/p>\n

We at the Economics for Equity and the Environment (E3) Network\u2014more than 300 progressive environmental economists nationwide\u2014decided it was time to find out.<\/p>\n

We didn’t want to rely only on traditional economic measures of success, such as income per capita, because these measures ignore things we thought were important, like equality and job satisfaction. Meanwhile, exciting stories of the next great thing presented without quantifiable measures of achievements were inadequate as well. To study these initiatives in a systematic way and understand more clearly what was going on, we needed a new methodology.<\/p>\n

Our steering committee, which is composed of senior economists, devised a multidimensional\u00a0framework for analyzing the future economy<\/a>. First, we asked researchers to succinctly describe the innovation they were studying. What are its main features? How does it differ from other efforts that try to address the same problems? Does it contribute to building institutions\u00a0<\/ins>such as common land ownership, cooperative enterprise management, public-private partnerships, or collaborative intellectual property?<\/p>\n

Next, researchers were asked to present evidence\u2014statistical wherever possible\u2014of how the project they were studying affects five different areas: livelihoods and opportunities; empowerment and social relations; equity; environment; and resilience.<\/p>\n

Finally, researchers probed the initiative\u2019s ability to grow and be replicated. Are there legal or regulatory barriers that limit the innovation\u2019s emergence or success? Can it expand from a neighborhood to a municipality, or a region? Does the innovation generate unintended consequences, desirable or otherwise?<\/p>\n

We selected six research teams of economists from around the country to look at future economy innovations in the following six places:<\/p>\n

1. Cleveland, Ohio<\/strong>
\nThe\u00a0Greater University Circle Initiative (GUCI),<\/a>\u00a0a job creation and community building venture involving wealthy institutions in the inner city.<\/p>\n

2. Portland, Oregon<\/strong>
\nVerde, a\u00a0green community development and job creation initiative<\/a>\u00a0in a neglected urban neighborhood.<\/p>\n

3. Hardwick, Vermont<\/strong>
\nBuilding an environmentally sustainable\u00a0local food cluster<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4. Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts<\/strong>
\nThe\u00a0realities of Community Supported Agriculture<\/a>\u00a0(CSA).<\/p>\n

5. Vancouver, British Columbia<\/strong>
\nA\u00a0low-carbon urban neighborhood energy utility<\/a>.<\/p>\n

6. Worldwide<\/strong>
\nCraigslist, Couchsurfing, and Neighborhoods:\u00a0Online platforms<\/a>\u00a0for exchanging and sharing goods.<\/p>\n

You can see that the projects our researchers studied were tremendously diverse. And what they found was intriguing, even startling in some cases.<\/p>\n

Researchers also found that new business models need specific regulatory and policy environments to thrive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One key lesson that emerges about these innovations is the importance of good, old-fashioned, face-to-face relationships in developing strong place-based initiatives.\u00a0<\/em>If some of the old economy\u2019s hallmarks are faceless call centers and centralized headquarters, successful future economy initiatives are investing in human relationships. The crucial element in Portland\u00a0nonprofit Verde\u2019s success<\/a>\u00a0in creating jobs and green spaces has been its ability to partner with other local and regional organizations, including a tight-knit neighborhood-based coalition of four dynamic nonprofits that calls itself Living Cully, named after the neighborhood where it works.<\/p>\n

Likewise, the Greater University Circle Initiative of Cleveland rests upon a\u00a0dense network of connections<\/a>\u00a0between local foundations, universities, hospitals, community organizations, cooperative enterprises, and job-training programs\u2014all designed to serve five low-income neighborhoods. And the success of the\u00a0food business cluster in Hardwick, Vermont<\/a>, rests on collaborations between local farmers, seed companies, food processors, and distributors, as well as a key food advocacy nonprofit that serves the entire community.<\/p>\n

Researchers also found that new business models need specific regulatory and policy environments to thrive. Although there is nearlyuniversal love for community-supported agriculture<\/a>\u20146,000 businesses and counting\u2014U.S. farm policy gives the advantage to large-scale farmers who grow hundreds of acres of corn, wheat, or soy, leaving CSA farmers to struggle to pay themselves and their workers a living wage. And\u00a0Anders Fremstad\u2019s research<\/a>\u00a0on sharing platforms suggests that the Ubers and Airbnbs of the world will need regulations and user agreements before they are able to take care of workers and sharers.<\/p>\n

There is a bright spot where government and future economy already meet: Economist Marc Lee found that Vancouver, British Columbia, had built a solid business model for its\u00a0False Creek district energy utility<\/a>, which is providing 70 percent of the neighborhood\u2019s commercial and residential heating from sewer lines, while running a financially viable operation.<\/p>\n

This first round of groundbreaking analyses establishes a practice of asking hard questions of new business models. If we are to truly build a more equitable, restorative economy, we need to engage business owners, communities, civic organizations, customers, and active citizens everywhere in a lively public conversation about living and working in the future. The\u00a0Future Economy Initiative<\/a>\u00a0is a tough-love contribution to driving that dialogue forward.<\/p>\n

\"Eban-Goostein-hed-100\"<\/a>Eban Goodstein, E3 Network and Future Economy Initiative steering committee member, founded and directs two graduate programs in sustainability at Bard College as well as the C2C Fellows sustainability leadership program. Robin Hahnel, director of the Future Economy Initiative, is professor emeritus from American University and research affiliate at Portland State University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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