Skip to main content
Resurgence of Public Ownership panel

The Resurgence of Public Ownership: A Transatlantic Exchange

Johanna Bozuwa

Johanna Bozuwa

Co-Manager, Climate and Energy Program, The Democracy Collaborative more

Andrew Cumbers

Andrew Cumbers

Professor of regional political economy at the University of Glasgow more

Thomas Hanna

Thomas Hanna

Director of Research at The Democracy Collaborative more

Cat Hobbs

Cat Hobbs

Founder & Director, We Own It more

Ashik Siddique

Ashik Siddique

Research analyst, Institute for Policy Studies more

Democratic Ownership

There’s momentum in both the United States and the United Kingdom for advancing public ownership of key economic assets for the good of the people. At a panel discussion hosted by the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington on April 10, 2019, experts from both sides of the Atlantic discussed how activists were successfully pushing back against privatization and reclaiming a deep and positive heritage of public ownership.

Panelists for this event were Thomas Hanna, author of “Our Common Wealth: the return of public ownership in the United States” and research director at The Democracy Collaborative; Andrew Cumbers, political economist at the University of Glasgow; Cat Hobbs, founder and director of We Own It; and Ashik Siddique of the Institute for Policy Studies and the Metropolitan D.C. Democratic Socialists of America. The moderator is The Next System Project’s Johanna Bozuwa.

Johanna Bozuwa

Johanna Bozuwa

Co-Manager, Climate and Energy Program, The Democracy Collaborative more

Andrew Cumbers

Andrew Cumbers

Professor of regional political economy at the University of Glasgow more

Thomas Hanna

Thomas Hanna

Director of Research at The Democracy Collaborative more

Cat Hobbs

Cat Hobbs

Founder & Director, We Own It more

Ashik Siddique

Ashik Siddique

Research analyst, Institute for Policy Studies more

More related work

Health innovation policy for the people

Health innovation policy for the people

Healthcare innovation policy in the United States has yielded some benefits but has also done harm, specifically when it comes o health equity. This paper identifies four such harms and offers recommendations that address the needs of marginalized communities and produces for all of us the innovations we really need. read more
Regeneration not gentrification

A “new direction”: Rediscovering community wealth building in an age of gentrification

To preserve communities in the throes of displacement, cooperative movements and new economy advocates must pivot in a new direction that blends place and the democratic economy. This “new direction” actually borrows from an idea nearly 50 years old. read more
Nenad Stojkovic via Flickr

Gar Alperovitz on how change happens over “pizza and some beer”

Gar Alperovitz talks about how the democratic economy can come into being much as movements did in the 1960s: “Six friends get together and get some pizza and some beer.” read more