Sigmund C. Shipp, Assistant Professor
Hunter College
Departments of Urban Affairs and Planning
695 Park Avenue
New York, New York 10065
(212) 772-5591(212) 772-5593 (fax)
e-mail: sshipp@shiva.hunter.cuny.edu"Social Capital, Cultural Capital, and
Worker Owned Cooperatives in Inner-City Neighborhoods"
ABSTRACT
This paper uses social and cultural factors to analyze worker-owned cooperatives. The objective is to define the role that cooperatives can play in reviving inner cities by creating businesses that train and give jobs to local residents.
The social factors that are important to this discussion are represented by the concept, social capital. This resource links economic prosperity to productive social networks and relationships among people. Values like cooperation and civic engagement are forms of social capital as are organizations such as churches and PTAs.
The cultural factors that are important to this discussion are subsumed under the designation cultural capital. Cultural capital, a sense of group consciousness, has caused blacks not merely in communities but nationwide to unify and to fight against racism. This was done by creating large scale collectively-owned enterprises that increased the status of the entire race. These enterprises were able to produce viable social networks, i.e., social capital, in the black community when this resource was in short supply. The point is that the use of cultural capital -- cultural consciousness or allegiance -- has laid the groundwork for the building of social networks and institutions that have promoted the stability and renewal of the black community.
This paper examines two organizations that have formed worker-owned firms currently operating in New York City. The first organization examined is the Oceanhill-Brownsville Tenants Association. It has relied on cultural capital to create social capital that is helping to this revive this black inner city community in Brooklyn, NY. The other example looks at Cooperative Home Care Associates that has used social capital alone to help a forgotten community in New York’s South Bronx. Both examples demonstrate the power of cooperatives to achieve effective community development.