What’s the project about:
How do you democratise the economy? How do you ensure that the value people create together stays within their community? Community Wealth Building (CWB) is a system-changing approach to community economic development that works to produce broadly shared economic prosperity, racial equity, and ecological sustainability through the reconfiguration of institutions and local economies on the basis of greater democratic ownership, participation, and control.
Activities:
Commons Network works with neighborhood initiatives, universities and actors in civil society to spread this method. Our mission is to help municipalities and regions everywhere to kickstart their own public-civil incentive and support programs. Below you can find an overview of activities and projects in which Commons Network actively stimulates different powers of CWB and the community economy.
Event: Worker cooperatives and the democratic economy
Worker cooperatives have a lot of potential and contribute worldwide to satisfied, productive and involved employees. During an inspiring evening on November 6, 2024, we discussed the history of cooperatives, local entrepreneurship and Community Wealth Building, which strengthen democratic enterprises. Together with FNV and GroenLinks we discussed the role of labour unions and politics and policy in creating a democratic economy. Sharing good examples and local purchasing arrangements prove to be crucial. A promising conversation to work towards an economy that works for many, and not only a few.
CWB in Amsterdam New-West
Since August 2024, Commons Network has been working on CWB in Amsterdam Nieuw-West, side by side with Samen Wonen Samen Leven. Here, Commons Network contributes to strengthening the CWB practice network through practice meetings, workshops, and public events. We have also been involved in guiding various initiatives and improving public-civil cooperation.
Design sessions
As part of our broader transition workshop, we organized a design session in October 2024. Civil servants from various districts of Amsterdam, alongside neighborhood initiatives, funders, and civil society organizations, came together to learn from one another and develop sustainable acceleration and support programs for initiatives across the city.
De Bol in Amsterdam Noord
From September 2023 to July 2024, we explored the vision, ambitions, and potential cooperative structure for De Bol through a collaborative process. Through various inspiration sessions, site visits, and neighborhood meetings, we mapped out the target groups, values, neighborhood functions, models, and opportunities as thoroughly as possible.
De Bol has secured its first cleaning contract from De Key, leading to the development of a worker cooperative, as well as a broader neighborhood work cooperative. With the support of a cooperative business coach, De Bol has been working on establishing and structuring the worker cooperative—ranging from writing a business plan to learning about collective decision-making and shared ownership.
which we mapped out potential anchor institutions and neighborhood talents that
could fit them.
Steenderen
In our presentations during design sessions with civil servants—first in a small online committee and later at the Bronckhorst town hall—we provided insights into the community economy, public-civil cooperation, and Community Wealth Building (CWB). We also gave an overview of various approaches and tools, highlighting how they align with current challenges.
Publications
Commons Network is working with governments, universities and civil society actors to spread the word. Our mission is to help countless municipalities and regions kickstart their own Community Wealth Building plans. We are also publishing blogs, essays and reports about this method as it finds its way from the UK and the US into the Netherlands. And finally, we developed a toolkit for Dutch institutions, together with the municipality of Amsterdam, which contains five concrete steps, many tips and lessons learned from both our own research and from others around the world.
Publication: Toolkit ‘WijkWelvaartsWerk’
Talks: Video presentation and interview
Other resources:
Interview at Cities for Change Conference
Essay at De Helling (in Dutch)
Essay at the Green European Journal: A Wealth of Opportunities
Blog at Cities for Change Conference
Project lead: Florine Zegers
Project worker: Vera Breugem
Run time: June 2020 – Present
Partners:
MeentCoop, Aouaki Concepts, Municipality of Amsterdam, Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken, Stichting Doen, Oranjefonds.