Gar Alperovitz, a leading scholar and activist in the building of a new economy, will speak on “Democratizing the Emerging Economy.”

Cooperatives, social enterprises, public banks and other new structures provide a new vision for the next economy. Alperovitz, the Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland, will explain how this work, especially the various forms of cooperative ownership, is helping to lay the groundwork for important new directions in the coming era that will see major political and economic changes.

Alperovitz’s latest book is America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy, which diagnoses the long-term structural crisis of the American economic and political system and offers detailed, practical answers to the problems. He is also the author of Unjust Deserts: Wealth and Equality in the Knowledge Economy (with Lew Daly), Making a Place For Community (with Thad Williamson and David Imbroscio), Rebuilding America (with Jeff Faux), Atomic Diplomacy and The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb.

Alperovitz is a founding principal of the University of Maryland-based Democracy Collaborative, a research institution developing practical, policy-focused, and systematic paths towards ecologically sustainable, community-oriented change and the democratization of wealth.

For an introduction to Alperovitz’s ideas, check out his interview on “Democratizing Wealth” and for his answer to “Is Public Ownership the Solution?”  His essay on “The New Economy Movement” ran in The Nation.

Alperovitz’s talk is sponsored by Cooperation Texas, an Austin-based non-profit committed to the creation of sustainable jobs through the development, support and promotion of worker-owned cooperatives.

A suggested donation of $10 (no one turned away for lack funds) will support the work of Cooperation Texas. For more information, contact Carlos Perez de Alejo, carlos@cooperationtexas.coop.

Location: 5604 Manor, 5604 Manor Road, Austin, 78723 – 5604manor.org