
Humanizing the Economy
Co-operatives in the Age of Capital
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $20.72
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
David M. Adams
-
By:
-
John Restakis
About this listen
At the close of the twentieth century, corporate capitalism extended its reach over the globe. While its defenders argue that globalization is the only way forward for modern, democratic societies, the spread of this system is failing to meet even the most basic needs of billions of individuals around the world. Moreover, the entrenchment of this free market system is undermining the foundations of healthy societies, caring communities, and personal wellbeing.
Humanizing the Economy shows how co-operative models for economic and social development can create a more equitable, just, and humane future. With over 800 million members in 85 countries and a long history linking economics to social values, the co-operative movement is the most powerful grassroots movement in the world. Its future as an alternative to corporate capitalism is explored through a wide range of real-world examples including:
- Emilia Romagna’s co-operative economy in Northern Italy
- Argentina’s recovered factory movement- Japan’s consumer and health co-operatives
Highlighting the hopes and struggles of everyday people seeking to make their world a better place, Humanizing the Economy is essential reading for anyone who cares about the reform of economics, globalization, and social justice.
©2011 John Restakis (P)2012 Post Hypnotic Press Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition That Is Shaping the Next Economy
- By: Nathan Schneider
- Narrated by: Matt Amendt
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since the financial crash of 2008, the cooperative movement has been coming back with renewed vigor. Everything for Everyone chronicles this economic and social revolution. Cooperative enterprise is poised to help us reclaim faith in our capacity for creative, powerful democracy.
-
-
A clear eyed assessment of the co-op movement.
- By Bill Eldridge on 07-05-22
By: Nathan Schneider
-
The Practical Utopians
- American Workers and the Cooperative Movement in the Gilded Age
- By: Steve Leikin
- Narrated by: Timothy W. Bader
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Between 1865 and 1890, in the aftermath of the Civil War, virtually every important American labor reform organization advocated "cooperation" over "competitive" capitalism and several thousand cooperatives opened for business during this era. The men and women who built cooperatives were practical reformers and they established businesses to stabilize their work lives, families, and communities. Yet they were also utopians - envisioning a world free from conflict where workers would receive the full value of their labor.
-
-
A rarely discussed part of American history.
- By MG Wray Samans on 03-11-17
By: Steve Leikin
-
Democracy at Work
- A Cure for Capitalism
- By: Richard D. Wolff
- Narrated by: Shawn Compton
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Capitalism as a system has spawned deepening economic crisis alongside its bought-and-paid-for political establishment. Neither serves the needs of our society. Whether it is secure, well-paid, and meaningful jobs or a sustainable relationship with the natural environment that we depend on, our society is not delivering the results people need and deserve.
-
-
Fantastic
- By Brandon on 03-07-19
By: Richard D. Wolff
-
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist
- By: Kate Raworth
- Narrated by: Kate Raworth
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Economics is the mother tongue of public policy. It dominates our decision-making for the future, guides multi-billion-dollar investments, and shapes our responses to climate change, inequality, and other environmental and social challenges that define our times. Pity then, or more like disaster, that its fundamental ideas are centuries out of date yet are still taught in college courses worldwide and still used to address critical issues in government and business alike. That's why it is time, says renegade economist Kate Raworth, to revise our economic thinking for the 21st century. In Doughnut Economics, she sets out seven key ways to fundamentally reframe our understanding of what economics is and does. Along the way, she points out how we can break our addiction to growth; redesign money, finance, and business to be in service to people; and create economies that are regenerative and distributive by design.
-
-
Economic romanticizing, not economic thinking
- By LAM X LUU on 04-05-18
By: Kate Raworth
-
Grocery Story
- The Promise of Food Co-ops in the Age of Grocery Giants
- By: Jon Steinman
- Narrated by: Jon Steinman
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hungry for change? Put the power of food co-ops on your plate and grow your local food economy. Food has become ground-zero in our efforts to increase awareness of how our choices impact the world. Yet while we have begun to transform our communities and dinner plates, the most authoritative strand of the food web has received surprisingly little attention: The grocery store - the epicenter of our food-gathering ritual.
-
-
A book everyone should read!
- By Breann Ruhl on 06-27-23
By: Jon Steinman
-
The Undertow
- Scenes from a Slow Civil War
- By: Jeff Sharlet
- Narrated by: Jeff Sharlet
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An unmatched guide to the religious dimensions of American politics, Jeff Sharlet journeys into corners of our national psyche where others fear to tread. The Undertow is both inquiry and meditation, an attempt to understand how, over the last decade, reaction has morphed into delusion, social division into distrust, distrust into paranoia, and hatred into fantasies—sometimes realities—of violence.
-
-
I'm just not feeling this one....
- By J. Richmond on 08-04-23
By: Jeff Sharlet
-
Everything for Everyone: The Radical Tradition That Is Shaping the Next Economy
- By: Nathan Schneider
- Narrated by: Matt Amendt
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Since the financial crash of 2008, the cooperative movement has been coming back with renewed vigor. Everything for Everyone chronicles this economic and social revolution. Cooperative enterprise is poised to help us reclaim faith in our capacity for creative, powerful democracy.
-
-
A clear eyed assessment of the co-op movement.
- By Bill Eldridge on 07-05-22
By: Nathan Schneider
-
The Practical Utopians
- American Workers and the Cooperative Movement in the Gilded Age
- By: Steve Leikin
- Narrated by: Timothy W. Bader
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Between 1865 and 1890, in the aftermath of the Civil War, virtually every important American labor reform organization advocated "cooperation" over "competitive" capitalism and several thousand cooperatives opened for business during this era. The men and women who built cooperatives were practical reformers and they established businesses to stabilize their work lives, families, and communities. Yet they were also utopians - envisioning a world free from conflict where workers would receive the full value of their labor.
-
-
A rarely discussed part of American history.
- By MG Wray Samans on 03-11-17
By: Steve Leikin
-
Democracy at Work
- A Cure for Capitalism
- By: Richard D. Wolff
- Narrated by: Shawn Compton
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Capitalism as a system has spawned deepening economic crisis alongside its bought-and-paid-for political establishment. Neither serves the needs of our society. Whether it is secure, well-paid, and meaningful jobs or a sustainable relationship with the natural environment that we depend on, our society is not delivering the results people need and deserve.
-
-
Fantastic
- By Brandon on 03-07-19
By: Richard D. Wolff
-
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist
- By: Kate Raworth
- Narrated by: Kate Raworth
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Economics is the mother tongue of public policy. It dominates our decision-making for the future, guides multi-billion-dollar investments, and shapes our responses to climate change, inequality, and other environmental and social challenges that define our times. Pity then, or more like disaster, that its fundamental ideas are centuries out of date yet are still taught in college courses worldwide and still used to address critical issues in government and business alike. That's why it is time, says renegade economist Kate Raworth, to revise our economic thinking for the 21st century. In Doughnut Economics, she sets out seven key ways to fundamentally reframe our understanding of what economics is and does. Along the way, she points out how we can break our addiction to growth; redesign money, finance, and business to be in service to people; and create economies that are regenerative and distributive by design.
-
-
Economic romanticizing, not economic thinking
- By LAM X LUU on 04-05-18
By: Kate Raworth
-
Grocery Story
- The Promise of Food Co-ops in the Age of Grocery Giants
- By: Jon Steinman
- Narrated by: Jon Steinman
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hungry for change? Put the power of food co-ops on your plate and grow your local food economy. Food has become ground-zero in our efforts to increase awareness of how our choices impact the world. Yet while we have begun to transform our communities and dinner plates, the most authoritative strand of the food web has received surprisingly little attention: The grocery store - the epicenter of our food-gathering ritual.
-
-
A book everyone should read!
- By Breann Ruhl on 06-27-23
By: Jon Steinman
-
The Undertow
- Scenes from a Slow Civil War
- By: Jeff Sharlet
- Narrated by: Jeff Sharlet
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An unmatched guide to the religious dimensions of American politics, Jeff Sharlet journeys into corners of our national psyche where others fear to tread. The Undertow is both inquiry and meditation, an attempt to understand how, over the last decade, reaction has morphed into delusion, social division into distrust, distrust into paranoia, and hatred into fantasies—sometimes realities—of violence.
-
-
I'm just not feeling this one....
- By J. Richmond on 08-04-23
By: Jeff Sharlet
-
Wired Differently
- How to Spark Better Results with a Cooperative Business Model, Servant Leadership, and Shared Values
- By: Vern Dosch, John Doggett - foreword, Wally Goulet - contributor, and others
- Narrated by: Clay Jenkinson
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wired Differently shares the compelling story of National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC), a nearly 50-year-old technology business built on the cooperative model. NISC started out providing software and IT services for three rural cooperatives a half-century ago and has grown to 14 million end users in 49 US states or territories, and in Canada. Here is an organization where cooperative principles blend with leading-edge technologies to exceed expectations repeatedly....
-
-
too long, no claer points
- By Milos on 01-30-17
By: Vern Dosch, and others
-
Build
- An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making
- By: Tony Fadell
- Narrated by: Tony Fadell, Roger Wayne
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tony Fadell led the teams that created the iPod, iPhone and Nest Learning Thermostat and learned enough in 30+ years in Silicon Valley about leadership, design, startups, Apple, Google, decision-making, mentorship, devastating failure and unbelievable success to fill an encyclopedia.
-
-
Best guide for start up founders, ever!!!
- By Curly Beard on 05-28-22
By: Tony Fadell
-
Caste
- The Origins of Our Discontents
- By: Isabel Wilkerson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Beautifully written, original, and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of American life today.
-
-
Brilliant, articulate, highly listenable.
- By GM on 08-05-20
By: Isabel Wilkerson
-
Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 50th Anniversary Edition
- By: Paulo Freire, Myra Bergman Ramos - translator, Donaldo Macedo - foreword, and others
- Narrated by: Dennis Kleinman
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
First published in Portuguese in 1968, Pedagogy of the Oppressed was translated and published in English in 1970. Paulo Freire's work has helped to empower countless people throughout the world and has taken on special urgency in the United States and Western Europe, where the creation of a permanent underclass among the underprivileged and minorities in cities and urban centers is ongoing. This 50th anniversary edition includes an updated introduction by Donaldo Macedo, a new afterword by Ira Shor, and many inspirational interviews.
-
-
Not easy listening
- By Berel Dov Lerner on 02-20-19
By: Paulo Freire, and others
-
The Design of Everyday Things
- Revised and Expanded Edition
- By: Don Norman
- Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Even the smartest among us can feel inept as we fail to figure out which light switch or oven burner to turn on, or whether to push, pull, or slide a door. The fault, argues this ingenious - even liberating - audiobook, lies not in ourselves, but in product design that ignores the needs of users and the principles of cognitive psychology. The Design of Everyday Things shows that good, usable design is possible. The rules are simple: make things visible, exploit natural relationships that couple function and control, and make intelligent use of constraints.
-
-
Designers Start Here (missing visual references)
- By sammy k on 09-01-19
By: Don Norman
-
American Cosmic
- UFOs, Religion, Technology
- By: D.W. Pasulka
- Narrated by: Norah Tocci
- Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
More than half of American adults and more than 75 percent of young Americans believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life. This level of belief rivals that of belief in God. American Cosmic examines the mechanisms at work behind the thriving belief system in extraterrestrial life, a system that is changing and even supplanting traditional religions.
-
-
Content - Exceptional - Norah Tocci needs lessons
- By Me on 02-18-19
By: D.W. Pasulka
-
It's OK to Be Angry About Capitalism
- By: Senator Bernie Sanders, John Nichols
- Narrated by: Senator Bernie Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s OK to be angry about capitalism. Reflecting on our turbulent times, Senator Bernie Sanders takes on the billionaire class and speaks blunt truths about our country’s failure to address the destructive nature of a system that is fueled by uncontrolled greed and rigidly committed to prioritizing corporate profits over the needs of ordinary Americans.
-
-
A true and unbiased understanding of politics today
- By Sassy monster on 02-21-23
By: Senator Bernie Sanders, and others
-
The Dawn of Everything
- A New History of Humanity
- By: David Graeber, David Wengrow
- Narrated by: Mark Williams
- Length: 24 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A trailblazing account of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution—from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of "the state", political violence, and social inequality—and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.
-
-
exactly what I've been looking for
- By DankTurtle on 11-10-21
By: David Graeber, and others
-
Poverty, by America
- By: Matthew Desmond
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The United States, the richest country on earth, has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Why? Why does this land of plenty allow one in every eight of its children to go without basic necessities, permit scores of its citizens to live and die on the streets, and authorize its corporations to pay poverty wages?
-
-
A testimonial based on facts and witness
- By Alonzo Nightjar on 03-27-23
By: Matthew Desmond
-
Emergent Strategy
- By: adrienne maree brown
- Narrated by: adrienne maree brown
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the tradition of Octavia Butler, here is radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help to shape the futures we want. Change is constant. The world, our bodies, and our minds are in a constant state of flux. They are a stream of ever-mutating, emergent patterns. Rather than steel ourselves against such change, Emergent Strategy teaches us to map and assess the swirling structures and to read them as they happen, all the better to shape that which ultimately shapes us, personally and politically.
-
-
Great book. Too many footnotes.
- By Moon 🌙 on 09-09-23
-
Bullshit Jobs
- A Theory
- By: David Graeber
- Narrated by: Christopher Ragland
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs”. It went viral. After a million online views in 17 different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer.
-
-
Incredibly disappointing...
- By Jordan Burton on 12-21-18
By: David Graeber
-
Understanding Socialism
- By: Richard D. Wolff
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A blend of history, analysis, and theory, Understanding Socialism is an honest and approachable text that knocks down false narratives, confronts failures and challenges of various socialist experiments throughout history, and offers a path to a new socialism based on workplace democracy.
-
-
Very Enlightening
- By Eric Marecek on 08-16-21
By: Richard D. Wolff
Critic reviews
What listeners say about Humanizing the Economy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tracy Baker
- 08-19-16
Great depth of knowledge.
A very dense but informative and thought-provoking work. A well-written analysis of the co-operative model with a succinct yet substantive analysis of the challenges, successes and practical implications. The author makes a compelling case for the viability of the co-operative model in today's capital market.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Tim
- 03-08-24
This Book Is Amazing 🦈
I think imma start a cooperative and see if I can get people to realize it, then build something that spanks Amazon. Oh that’d be so good. I hope to come back to this review someday knowing that it helped create something super great. 🦈 logistics is where it’s at.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- AKPANOLUO U ETTEH
- 11-05-23
A foundational text on cooperatives
I came across this book with the Google search "worker co-operatives book" and I was not disappointed. It's given me the intellectual background to speak with clarity about worker cooperatives to others and the cooperative movement as a whole. Discusses the dark moments of the past and present but always returning to an optimism around what has already been accomplished and what is yet to be realized. I wholeheartedly recommend!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Matthe
- 04-02-20
Amazing primer for anyone interested in Co-ops
I cannot recommend more. The author does an incredible job of establishing the clear need for new economic models and lays out a compelling argument that the long history and durability of cooperatives may hold the key to solving a broad range of complicated socioeconomic problems. The work is well researched and honest in its approach.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Alexandra Hopkins
- 08-21-17
Terrific book! Interesting, enjoyable, informative
This book is terrific! And narration is excellent.
It's about economic co-operatives in which the workers own the enterprise. It's starts with a description of a longstanding co-operative created by sex workers in Calcutta, India. By forming a co-operative, the women have been able to develop self-respect, improve their healthcare, their protection from HIV, and raise their economic situation and their literacy rates. The Calcutta co-operative has inspired similar co-operatives of sex workers in India and other countries.
Then, the book describes worker ownership of failed factories in Argentina which otherwise would have shut down. These two examples provide concrete understanding of how co-operatives are formed and operate.
The rest of the book discusses the role of cooperatives in dealing with problems that globalism is creating--the unfettered power of multinational corporations, the loss of U.S. manufacturing, and growing income inequality in the West. The author, John Restakis, has a wide-ranging understanding of the current economic and political situation that Capitalist countries are experiencing. When he wrote it, in 2009, he could see that our trends would end us up where we are today, with someone like Trump as President.
While Restakis doesn't note the reductions in world poverty since the 1980's that global Capitalism is responsible for, for the most part, he's not dogmatic. As he says at the end of the book, he sees important roles for many different types of economic organizations --co-operatives, corporations, government agencies, and NGO's.
The book is easy-listening (if you're not put off by the sex worker section) and enjoyable. At the same time, it's packed with new information and new ideas. My appetite has been whetted for more about co-operatives. I see it as an approach very much needed to deal with many of our American social, political, and economic problems.
Interestingly, today, upon finishing the book, I pretty much randomly started watching a 2009 romantic comedy called "New in Town." Turns out it's about a factory in Minnesota about to be roboticized by a big corporation. It gets into the worker-related issues of "Humanizing the Economy." Could the screenplay writer have read the book? Stars Renee Zellwegger and Harry Connick, Jr. Light fare and a little corny, but quite enjoyable, and with a focus on the cultural conflicts that are so much part of American politics right now. I recommend the movie for the light version of "Humanizing the Economy." But mostly, I highly recommend reading (or listening to the audiobook of) "Humanizing the Economy."
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ana Paula Soto Maior
- 09-30-18
Right on the target
Great study on co-ops with a global picture on the state of the economy and how it can become more human and eficient. Not to miss if you want to understand the status quo.
The narrator used a too agressive tone for my taste.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- William
- 08-30-12
Could have been better
Good ideas and useful information but fails to break free of capitalist paradigm and spends way too much time on prostitution.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!