Beyond the Corporation

• Beyond the Corporation: Humanity Working. David Erdal. Random House UK, 2012

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Discussion

Bernard Marszalek excertps and discusses the case study of the city of Imola:

"The city of Imola hosts more cooperatives than any other town in Italy, and very likely the world. One in four citizens are cooperative members. Erdal did a study of the residents of that town and compared it to a town nearby with half the number of cooperatives and a town a bit farther away with no cooperatives. More than a decade has passed and I don’t believe that there has been a similar study.

I’m going to quote a long section from Erdal’s findings because they apply directly to Harcourt’s concerns about the US being a punitive society:

"In those three towns I compared public data on mortality and a number of other measures – voting, blood donations, car ownership, household wealth and others – and carried out a random survey of households in each town asking about such things as the gap they perceived between rich and poor, their own social networks, their attitude to the authorities, their educational experience, and their perceptions of crime, including domestic violence.

The overall pattern of results showed that the towns with a greater proportion of businesses owned by their employees had healthier communities.

1. They perceived a small gap between rich and poor.
2. They had larger and more supportive social networks – more friends to call on if they needed help.
3. They saw the political authorities as being more on their side.
4. They believed that domestic violence was less prevalent.*
5. They gave more blood – blood is a pure gift in Italy; no payment is made.
6. Their children stayed at school longer, and did better.
7. They continued being trained and educated all their lives, to a radically greater extent.

More of them voted in elections.

Except for domestic violence, crime rates were so low that I could not generate useful statistics on crime.11 Most noteworthy according to Erdal is that the residents of Imola lived longer – two and a half years longer than the people in the town without cooperatives. The most obvious conclusions, given the lower rate of heart problems, is that control over one’s enterprise resulted in less stress."

(https://geo.coop/articles/review-cooperation-political-economic-and-social-theory#footnote10_6rrs4s7)

More information

• Coops may improve your lifespan: https://www.ztangi.org/will-your-co-op-extend-your-life-span/