Welcome to Economic Democracy: The Cooperative Alternative, our MOOC about worker-owned and worker-controlled firms.

We often hear that political democracy is the best available form of government, but democracy rarely operates within the firm. Many of us elect our politicians, but very few can elect our Boss. Especially since the Great Crash of 2008 people (possibly including you) around the world are seeking a viable alternative to hierarchical, corporate capitalism. Could a cooperative, market economy, in which firms are owned and controlled by their workers, be such an alternative? That’s the central issue we address in the MOOC.

The MOOC is self-paced…you choose how fast you work. But as a guide, there are six blocks in the course, each requiring around three hours of work to complete. We suggest you work through the course material in the order it is presented, though browsing is OK too. There is a graded test at the end of each block: your overall mark is the sum of your marks on these tests and you’ll need a final mark of 50% to pass.

The MOOC team have a wide range of backgrounds and skills. We are David Erdal and Juliette Summers (Management School, University of St. Andrews), Jelte Harnmejer (James Hutton Institute, Edinburgh), Rick Woodward (Business School, University of Edinburgh) and Donald A R George (School of Economics, University of Edinburgh).

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