Research Materials

During my first month in Jackson, I’ve been exposed to some great materials that have helped me really engage with this space. Most vital of all of these has been “Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi” by Kali Akuno and a bunch of other people involved at Cooperation Jackson. The book lays out the visions, structures, and motivations of Cooperation Jackson (CJ). It’s been a helpful roadmap for understanding the history of the organization, and for measuring how CJ has or hasn’t manifested the goals they’ve laid out in their book. 

The book was published in 2017, and is kind of out of date, though I don’t feel comfortable discussing these specific disappointments here. In general however, the book has preserved key discourse and vision that the people at CJ are still very committed to. I found the book at the Center, and they very graciously gave it to me. It’s been helpful to compare how they discuss the function of the community land trust (CLT) against the papers I’ve been reading about CLTs. I feel that I am still missing some critical theoretical work, however. If anyone has any suggestions of social science resources that focus on organizers/cooperatives/land trusts that focus on social dynamics that would be much appreciated.