Community Equity and Wealth Building

This course introduces graduate students to the field of community wealth-building, neighborhood equity, and movements for community-led economic development. Students will examine ways that communities have organized against redlining, and for access to capital; methods for ensuring collaborative, inclusive economic development and a just transition from an extractive to a regenerative economy; and technical tools needed to advance cooperative economics and locally-controlled development. The course will provide students with a strong historical framework, as well as timely case studies showing how groups in low-income urban neighborhoods and communities of color are working to build a just economy. Guest speakers will share their experiences organizing for community control of land and social housing, community development financial institutions and public banking, worker-owned cooperatives, locally-controlled renewable energy, and more.