This report offers an in-depth exploration of Community Wealth Building (CWB) as a transformative economic development model designed to create democratic ownership and control of local assets. It emphasizes the need to address the persistent inequality and disinvestment in U.S. cities, particularly in communities of color that have been historically marginalized.
The report explains how CWB integrates progressive elements such as worker cooperatives, community land trusts, and public banking into a cohesive system that can be scaled across entire cities. It provides insights from various case studies, including Chicago’s strategy for economic recovery and efforts to combat wealth inequality through inclusive enterprise ownership and local investment. The authors argue that CWB offers an alternative to traditional economic development models by retaining and circulating wealth within communities, creating equitable economic systems.
Authors
- Pages
- 20
- Published in
- United States of America
Table of Contents
- A NEW ERA 1
- FOR 1
- COMMUNITY 1
- WEALTH BUILDING 1
- About the authors 2
- Growing a democratic economy in cities across America with lessons from Chicago 2
- INTRODUCTION 3
- Community wealth building transforms local economies based on communities having direct ownership and control of their assets. 4
- THE MOMENT FOR CWB 5
- The five pillars 8
- THE TDC APPROACH 8
- The wedge represents CWBs truly transformative power disrupting and displacing the extractive economy and driving a more democratic economy from the local to the global. 9
- City of the Broad Shoulders 12
- CHICAGO A CASE STUDY 12
- Chicagos progressive potential 13
- Engagement with TDC 14
- This fully realized CWB strategy could transform how Chicagos economy operates and improve the lives of millions of people. 14
- CHANGE THAT WORKS 17
- Endnotes 18
