The Mondragón Corporation is an inspiration. The largest cooperative in the world, they are a federated network of over 250 co-operative businesses who together are the seventh biggest group in Spain. They employ over 80,000 people, have their own banks, universities, research laboratories and social security systems. They have proven to be incredibly resilient to the on going economic crisis. Unemployment in the Basque region where they are based is less than half than the rest of Spain … [Read more...]
Money and Life – a new documentary about money
Have you seen Money and Life yet? It is a great new film all about money that is well worth watching. I'm pleased to say that I helped fund the production of the film by contributing to their crowdfunding campaign. It is not too late to support the film yourself. You can donate, buy the DVD, and find out how to host a screening etc over at the website. Please do so and help Katie Teague, the independent film maker who made the film, to recoup the signifcant costs incurred during the making … [Read more...]
Time to replicate WIR Bank?
The WIR Bank in Switzerland has been successfully running for over 60 years. It was started in the 1930s in response to the great economic crises of the time. Studies have shown that it's turnover is extremely counter-cyclical, adding to the resilience and stability of the Swiss Economy. They are a great long-term example of how financial co-operatives prove to be more resilient in times of crisis. Almost 20% of all Swiss Businesses are members and they have an annual turnover of nearly £3 … [Read more...]
Kiran Bir Sethi teaches kids to take charge
As mentioned a few posts ago, I'm going to be sharing lots of inspirational videos about education. This time we have educator and design activist Kiran Bir Sethi who says “Hope is not a strategy” and teaches childen the power of 'I can'. Sethi has been employing design thinking to develop solutions to some of the most pressing social problems in India. Her approach motivates school children to be the change that needs to happen in the world. Great stuff! :) … [Read more...]
How Cooperatives and Community Enterprise Will Get Us Out of this Gigantic Mess
I've posted this excellent talk by Janelle Orsi from the brilliant Sustainable Economies Law Center a few times over on our facebook page. The whole presentation is well worth watching, but I particularly like it when she says: What is the entity structure that is most going to ensure that our communities are protected? and what is going to most ensure that the wealth in society becomes distributed more equitably? I keep coming back to the answer of: Co-operatives. Co-operatives, Co-operatives, … [Read more...]
The Hole in the Wall – Can kids teach themselves?
A lot of what we do at United Diversity is about education. And a lot of our plans going forward are about education too. With that in mind I'm going to whack up a few education related videos that have inspired us over the years, starting with this one of Sugata Mitra's 2007 talk about his now famous Hole in the Wall experiment. … [Read more...]
COMING HOME: E.F. Schumacher and the Reinvention of the Local Economy
This is one of the best documentaries about Community Supported Agriculture, Community Land Trusts and Community Currencies. COMING HOME: E.F. Schumacher and the Reinvention of the Local Economy, is a new 37 minute film that tells the story of a series of revolutionary innovations by the community of Great Barrington, MA to address, at the local level, some of the economic challenges of our nation’s current hard times. In 1973, British economist E.F. Schumacher wrote “Small is Beautiful – … [Read more...]
Edible City – Grow the Revolution
Just came across this great film: Edible City: Grow the Revolution is a fun, fast-paced, feature-length documentary journey through the local Good Food movement that’s taking root in the San Francisco Bay Area, across the nation and around the world. Big respect to them for launching the film online for free from the outset. I wish more people would did this. … [Read more...]
Inside Job (with Spanish subtitles, again)
This is a must see film. We've posted it a couple of times before, but those videos have since been removed. Here is is again, again with Spanish subtitles: … [Read more...]
The Genius of #KONY2012 and why all NGOs should take note
Let me start with a disclaimer: I have not watched the KONY2012 video. Just listening to it made me feel a bit uneasy (my fiancée watched on her laptop whilst we both worked at home sitting opposite each other at our dining table). I have, however, been familiar with the work of Invisible Children since March 2006 (doesn't the Internet age fast? all links on that post but theirs' have since expired). Not long after that, I organised a screening of their first self-entitled film and to be … [Read more...]
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