During my last two years at UCLA, I lived in a cooperative housing, which was truly an amazing experience. A unique aspect to my coop was that it was also where many international students lived, allowing me to meet people from all over the world. But a central tenet of my coop which is shared by all is the democratic control of an organization which fosters a strong community.

Housing cooperatives are created with seven guiding principles known as the “Rochdale Principles.” These include an open and voluntary membership, democratic and economic participation, autonomy, education, and outreach to other coops and the community in which they live.

These principles create a community where every member has a vested interest in each other and the success of the coop. Every member has a stake in how everything is run and has a designated responsibility to contribute to the community (I was on the maintenance crew, membership committee and sustainability crew, for example). The best part of this situation was that, by owning and bearing the responsibility of running the coop, members develop a strong sense of ownership and belonging to their community. When other students would ask me, “Who owns that building?” referring to my coop, a predictably confused look greeted my response of, “we do.”

I absolutely recommend living in a coop if you are looking for a new place to live. Student coops obviously require that you be a student, or at least associated with a nearby university (for a list of student cooperatives in North America, click here) but there are general housing cooperatives as well (to search for a housing cooperative, click here).

However, there are other cooperatives besides housing. In fact, there are many different types. Grocery coops, for example, are member based stores that typically sell organic and healthy foods and maintain accountability to its members through elections (to find a grocery cooperative near you, click here). There are also various types of farming, agricultural, banking, etc. coops. And coops don’t have to be small organizations either, some are major corporations. A famous example is REI, a national chain of stores that sells camping and recreational equipment. It has over three million members and holds elections every year for its board .

Cooperative relationships have even found themselves into business purchasing practices. In these cases, members form a group purchasing consortium to leverage their purchasing power and lower costs. Oftentimes these are designed to reduce the cost of environmentally preferable products through cooperative contracts (to watch an RPN webinar on how institutions can participate in cooperative contracts, hosted by yours truly, click here).

My main point is that engaging in a cooperative environment, be it housing, food, business or otherwise, is a great opportunity to become a member of a fantastic and rewarding community; one that is for the people, by the people, and of the people.

Posted in Community, Everything Else  | |  

About the Author

Phillip is an RPN fellow who graduated with a B.A.from UCLA in Political Science and Environmental Systems and Society. Before joining the New Dream team, Phillip has been involved in several environmental groups in California. In his spare time, he enjoys backpacking in the Sierra Nevadas, bike riding, and cooking.