4 Oct 24

From Scarcity to Shared Cities: Community and Cooperation

by Nick Anim

Faced with escalating social, economic, and environmental crises, there is an urgent need for us to explore collective actions that can generate social transformations from below. Historically, communities worldwide have cooperated to ensure their survival and well-being. Philosophies like Ubuntu in Southern Africa, Sumak kawsay or Buen Vivir in Latin America, and Eco-Swaraj in India highlight important ethical approaches to harmonious coexistence between people and the planet. In high-income countries like the UK, co-operatives are promoted as ethical alternatives to counter the many unsustainable trajectories of a very resilient business-as-usual.

Spaces of Hope: There Are Many Alternatives

"Spaces of Hope: There Are Many Alternatives" is a series of community conversations and workshops aimed at inspiring local collective actions for environmental sustainability and social justice in Brixton and beyond. Transition Town Brixton, in collaboration with The Brixton Project, has hosted four sessions focusing on imagination in collective actions, the housing crisis, regeneration, sustainable community spaces, and addressing food and health disparities. An emerging theme suggests a yearning for greater cooperation within and beyond local communities. On that note, the fourth session of 'Spaces of Hope' marked the beginning of a pivot from conversations towards community-based collective actions.

This blog reflects on the evolving landscape of community-based co-operatives, their potential to provide alternatives to traditional profit-maximising models, and their implicit promises to disrupt unsustainable trajectories of development while avoiding exclusionary market approaches.

A Brief Overview of Community Co-operatives

Community-based co-operatives exist in various sectors, including housing, healthcare, music production, and renewable energy. Their service to community typically extends beyond their entry-point into the community. For example, Brixton Energy, London's first community-owned solar power project initiated by Transition Town Brixton, demonstrates how co-operatives can generate social, financial, and environmental benefits. In that regard, Brixton Energy and its offshoot Repowering London have created jobs, provided skills training, and supported local communities in many other ways which show that collective action can thrive even, or particularly, in challenging social and economic circumstances.

However, despite such examples of success, co-operatives have yet to significantly disrupt the unsustainable consequences of the status quo. With millions of members worldwide, the co-operative movement's transformative potential has, arguably, been tamed by market-driven forces. New community co-operatives face the challenge of maintaining their core ethical values without imitating the systems they seek to change. We explored these challenges and more in our recent session of "Spaces of Hope", which focused on the implicit promises of community co-operatives to drive transformative change locally and globally.

What follows is a summary of some key points discussed with our panel of new community co-operative contributors from Kin Co-operative, The Rising Sun Collective, and Brixton Hill Studios, as well as various attendees from co-operatives and movements based in Brixton.

Rising to Market Challenges

Community co-operatives, driven by ethical principles rather than profit, face challenges in meeting local demands with limited resources. Yet, they offer lasting local engagement through democratic governance and shared benefits that the dominant profit-maximising models generally lack.

As Scott from The Rising Sun Collective noted, “We operate on a consensus model, which is quite informal. It’s somewhat like a team dynamic, where we all come together to agree on the way forward.”

Beyond the democratic ethos, community co-operatives often provide cultural and social spaces of hope that transcend their primary functions. Stephen from Brixton Hill Studios explained how, faced with a challenging 136% rent increase that threatened their operational viability, they harnessed their studio's significance to the community: “We realised that the studio was bigger than us... The community in Brixton got together, and our MP and Lambeth Council supported us. Eventually, we were able to strike a deal that meant we could survive the next few years.”

Mobilising and maintaining broad community support, as Stephen highlighted, is vital for local co-operatives like Brixton Hill Studios to rise to market challenges and thrive.

How Co-operatives Thrive in Competitive Markets

1. Leveraging Local Knowledge: Local co-operatives like Brixton Hill Studios often become integrated into, and integral to, the community fabric by attending to the dynamic needs of their locality. As Stephen told us, "We've been serving the musical community of Brixton for ten years, initially working in a makeshift space where artists and creatives have come to record, store, and practice. Over time, we built a strong community... We realised that the studios meant more to the community than we had initially thought. It wasn't just our space; it was part of Brixton's fabric."
By being embedded in their communities, co-operatives like Brixton Hill Studios and Brixton Energy also gain meaningful insights into local needs, which allows them to fill gaps often overlooked or wilfully neglected by profit-driven organisations.

2. Building Trust: Co-operatives foster loyalty by being accountable to local members rather than some distant and faceless shareholders. To that point, as Rob from Kin Co-op emphasised, narratives are important in fostering a collective identity: "We need a common language among groups that are doing radical or co-operative things." Additionally, noting that co-operatives are generally trusted for their ethical stance and community-centric values, events like 'Spaces of Hope' help to build organic relationships and collective narratives that can guide the development of a collective identity and vision and, ultimately, lead to collective actions.

3. Purpose-Driven Services: By offering services that align with local social and environmental needs, co-operatives appeal to conscious consumers. As Chloe from The Rising Sun Collective reflected, "a few years ago, the Rising Sun faced eviction, which felt devastating given what it represented for us. Scott and I immediately began brainstorming how we could save it. A local friend suggested we turn the space into a co-op, and with the help of Community-Led Housing London, we made that idea a reality." Purpose-driven spaces like The Rising Sun can nurture community members' visions and maintain their appeal beyond their original value. However, they must always remain attentive to the gravitational pull of market dynamics that are driven by, for example, funding limitations and inclinations to 'grow or die'.

Avoiding Market Traps

Community-based co-operatives must resist profit-focused dynamics that could undermine their foundational principles and values. Strategies to stay true to their mission include:

1. Prioritising Community Well-being: Co-operatives should focus on long-term community health rather than short-term gains. Stephen from Brixton Hill Studios emphasised that "art does not create money... [for us] it is about the artists' and community's needs first." By putting the primary needs of artists and communities ahead of market traps like relentlessly pursuing efficiency, growth, and financial gain, such co-operatives can remain grounded in their missions and visions despite all the challenges they face in the 'marketplace'.

2. Resisting the Urge to Scale Unnaturally: Growth should focus on "scaling impact", not market share. Rob from Kin Co-op pointed to the example of Co-op 57 in Spain, which has 2,000 co-ops in its membership, as a model of scaling organically and maintaining impact without losing core values.

3. Inclusive Governance: Participatory governance ensures community-led decisions that are often more sustainable because they are not imposed from above, as is common with profit-driven businesses. As Scott from The Rising Sun Collective explained, "it's somewhat like a team dynamic, where we all come together to agree on the way forward." This approach empowers community members to contribute more according to their strengths, and safeguards adaptive and resilient governance.

4. Forming Partnerships: Co-operatives should collaborate with similar organisations to share resources and build collective visions. Rob pointed out that the UK is "really behind" in creating or encouraging co-operative networks, but emphasised that partnerships could strengthen co-operative movement across the country. Our task, then, with 'Spaces of Hope' is to figure out how a community co-op in Brixton can facilitate the partnerships needed to inspire social transformations from below.

Scaling Up for Greater Impact

Scaling offers both opportunities and risks for co-operatives. Effective scaling requires:

1. Replicating Models: Co-operatives can scale by replicating successful models in new areas. Rob explained that federations like ?in the U.S. have built a co-operative brand, which has helped to enhance Arizmendi recognition and trust.

2. Challenging Traditional Business Models: Co-operatives can disrupt extractive practices by promoting community-owned ventures that redistribute benefits. Scott from The Rising Sun Collective told us that their aim as a co-op, is not just to house people but to "invest in housing co-ops" that support community well-being.

3. Leveraging Technology: Technology can democratise decision-making by fostering greater community engagement. In that context, Rob emphasised the need to tackle existing gaps in software and infrastructure supporting community-driven finance. Kin Co-op is working to address these gaps, but outdated systems hinder outreach.

4. Promoting a New Economic Narrative: Co-operatives challenge traditional business approaches by prioritising community needs such as social and environmental sustainability. Rob argued for creating a co-operative "brand" to increase visibility and trust, as federations have done in Spain and the U.S. Such narratives can help the co-operative movement advance a holistic view of success that is rooted in increasing community empowerment and sustainability rather than just profit.

In conclusion, the conversations and insights shared so far during our "Spaces of Hope: There Are Many Alternatives" community conversations highlight the transformative potential of community co-operatives to address the recurrent social, economic, and environmental crises we face. Co-operatives such as Kin Co-operative, The Rising Sun Collective, Brixton Hill Studios, and Brixton Energy, rooted in and driven by ethical principles and community empowerment, offer a compelling alternative to profit-maximising models.

As the discussions highlighted, co-operatives can thrive by leveraging local knowledge, building trust, and providing purpose-driven services that align with community needs. However, to achieve their full potential, they must resist the pressures of market dynamics, maintain participatory governance, and prioritise community well-being over the allure of short-term gains. Further still, scaling up for greater impact will require co-operatives to replicate successful models, challenge traditional business practices, and embrace new technologies to democratise decision-making and improve community engagement.

Ultimately, the success of co-operatives in Brixton and beyond depends on their ability to stay true to their values while navigating the challenges of growth and market competition. By fostering partnerships, building collective narratives, and promoting a new economic vision centred on community welfare, co-operatives can catalyse meaningful social transformations from below. The journey from community conversations to action, as seen in our 'Spaces of Hope' sessions, is essential to help local co-operatives to create a more socially just and environmentally sustainable future for all.