{"product_id":"cooperatives-in-new-orleans-collective-action-and-urban-development-hardcover","title":"Cooperatives in New Orleans: Collective Action and Urban Development - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eAnne Gessler\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCooperatives have been central to the development of New Orleans. Anne Gessler asserts that local cooperatives have reshaped its built environment by changing where people interact and with whom, helping them collapse social hierarchies and envision new political systems.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGessler tracks many neighborhood cooperatives, spanning from the 1890s to the present, whose alliances with union, consumer, and social justice activists animated successive generations of regional networks and stimulated urban growth in New Orleans.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eStudying alternative forms of social organization within the city's multiple integrated spaces, women, people of color, and laborers blended neighborhood-based African, Caribbean, and European communal activism with international cooperative principles to democratize exploitative systems of consumption, production, and exchange. From utopian socialist workers' unions and Rochdale grocery stores to black liberationist theater collectives and community gardens, these cooperative entities integrated marginalized residents into democratic governance while equally distributing profits among members.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBesides economic development, neighborhood cooperatives participated in heady debates over urban land use, applying egalitarian cooperative principles to modernize New Orleans's crumbling infrastructure, monopolistic food distribution systems, and spotty welfare programs. As Gessler indicates, cooperative activists deployed street-level subsistence tactics to mobilize continual waves of ordinary people seizing control over mainstream economic and political institutions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAnne Gessler\u003c\/b\u003e is clinical assistant professor, First-Year Seminar Program and Humanities Program, University of Houston-Clear Lake. She has published her research in \u003ci\u003eE3W Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eJournal of Southern History\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eRadio Journal\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eUtopian Studies\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eAmerican Studies in Scandinavia\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 296\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.81 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e May 20, 2020\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47501734314162,"sku":"9781496827616","price":198.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0770\/3891\/1666\/files\/90a54f83bcdf12c8c50d17cec6d75776.webp?v=1779448858","url":"https:\/\/box.dadyminds.org\/products\/cooperatives-in-new-orleans-collective-action-and-urban-development-hardcover","provider":"DADYMINDS BOX","version":"1.0","type":"link"}