The authors of this paper argue that worker co-ops need to be valued as an improvement in the quality of working life, yet all too often they and the agencies which support them are caught up in a “numbers game†of trying to maximise the number of jobs created in order to justify...

In Britain a new generation of worker co-operatives have emerged that differ from earlier phases of co-operative development in that they have been formed primarily to create jobs in response to the high level of unemployment. All the major political parties favour co-operative development and...

In the UK, many low-income communities have seen the withdrawal of `mainstream', high-street-based financial service infrastructure from their local areas since the mid to late 1980s, whilst more costly sub-prime lenders have flourished, often in their place. There has been a developing search...

Mary Mellor explores the potential of money as an agent of socially just and ecologically sustainable development. Through an analysis of theories of money it shows how existing money systems work and how radical reform of the mechanisms of money issue and circulation could be achieved.

This paper will argue that ecofeminist political economy can make a major contribution to green economics. Ecofeminist political economy sees women's work and lives, like the natural world, as being externalised by current economic systems. Through an analysis of the gendering of economic...

Mary Mellor and Geoff Moore present case studies of two organizations that have Corporate Social Responsibility in the form of social purpose at the heart of their theory and practice. Traidcraft, a Fair Trading organization and Shared Interest a financial cooperative that supports Fair Trade,...

These Explorations argue that more links between the fields of feminist ecology and feminist economics are both needed and promising, and presents new, boundary-crossing research in this area. It brings together contributions from various regions in the world that link political action and...

Concern with social exclusion and neighbourhood renewal has often focused on economic regeneration and new ways of stimulating employment or selfemployment in local economies. One recent initiative has been to raise private money through a bond with the social aim of creating local employment....

Sustainable development, although a widely used phrase and idea, has many different meanings and therefore provokes many different responses. In broad terms, the concept of sustainable development is an attempt to combine growing concerns about a range of environmental issues with socio-economic...