Archive for the 'Education' Category

Inside the Third Wave: Knowledge Workers as an Engine of Economic Growth

by Editors @ Tuesday, August 31st, 2010. Filed under Economic Democracy, Education, High Road Economics

Where the Super-Brains Are

 
By Richard Florida

SolidarityEconomy.net via The Atlantic Monthly

Last Friday, my list of America's Brainiest Cities ran over at The Daily Beast. Boulder topped the list, which comprised a mix of larger knowledge-intensive metros like Washington, D.C., Boston, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Austin, and Seattle, and college towns like Ithaca, Charlottesville, Madison, Iowa City, and Durham, North Carolina, among others.

The map above, prepared by Zara Matheson of the Martin Prosperity Institute, shows the performance of all U.S. metros on our Brainiest Metros Index developed with my colleague Charlotta Mellander. The index is based on three variables:

  • The share of adults 25 years of age and older with a PhD, master's, or professional degree (from the U.S. Census American Community Survey).
  • Computer scientists and mathematicians as a share of all employment.
  • Scientists (physical, biological, social) as a share of total metro employment (both from Bureau of Labor Statistics).

The Index weights all three variables equally and covers 339 U.S. metro regions.

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There’s a Lesson Here: Union Workers, New Skills and a Green Energy Future

by Editors @ Sunday, August 8th, 2010. Filed under Economy, Education, Trade Unions

The Power of One: Tracy Hall

Brings Renewable Energy

to Northwest Indiana


By Andrea Buffa
Apollo News Service 

 

July 22, 2010 - Tracy Hall of Munster, Indiana has been an electrician for 30 years. He is among the thousands of construction trades workers hit by the current recession, who have seen unemployment in the trades rise to almost 25 percent nationally. But Hall hasn’t had time to sit around getting depressed about the state of the economy. Instead, he’s spent the time when work has been scarce developing a new expertise. As the only union worker in Indiana who is certified as a solar photovoltaic installer by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners, and a LEED Accredited Professional by the U.S. Green Building Council, he has become one of Northwest Indiana’s most knowledgeable renewable energy technicians.

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Why the Mondragon Coops Started with a School for Youth

by Editors @ Tuesday, February 16th, 2010. Filed under Economic Democracy, Education

Photo: MCC's worker-owned university

Education, Training

and Information: Looking

Deeper at Mondragon

By John McNamara

Feb. 8, 2010

“It is said that co-operation is an economic movement that utilizes educational activities, but it can also be said that co-operation is an educational movement that utilizes economic activities.“–Don José María Arizmendiarreta, founder of the Mondragon Cooperatives.

Here's a fun exercise, well maybe interesting more than “fun”, at co-operative gathering centers around the principles. Ask the co-operators present, “Which is the most important principle.” If there are more than seven people in the room, you will likely get about eight different answers.

People often focus on the user principles and democracy as being the principles that separate co-operatives from other businesses. Of course, in my opinion, the best answer is that they are all equally important and feed into each other. Case in point: how strong can democracy be if the electorate isn’t educated or informed?

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