More Praise for Owning Our Future

“I’ve been reading material in this genre for twenty-five years, and this book is one of the best I’ve ever read. It is visionary while including real stories that are actionable and practical. It’s inspiring but grounded. It’s radical and inviting. I don’t get effusive easily, but this really is amazing.”

—Sarah van Gelder, cofounder and Executive Editor, Yes! Magazine

“I am just awestruck by this book, moved nearly to tears. As a crusty old farmer and realist, I’m usually not so confessional, but this does indeed appear to be the central, organizing element we need—both for what’s so wrong with the current design and for what unites the many alternatives in which we’ve all been engaged.”

—Anthony Flaccavento, organic farmer and founder, Appalachian Sustainable Development

“With heart and grace, Marjorie Kelly decodes the imponderables of finance and business. Her storytelling gift enables us to see our power to create economies that serve life instead of drain it from us.”

—Frances Moore Lappé, author of Diet for a Small Planet and EcoMind

“A guide to the cutting edge of hope on the frontier of the ownership movement—and a marvelous tour of the most inspiring democratic and ecologically serious enterprise forms.”

—Gar Alperovitz, Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy and cofounder, The Democracy Collaborative, University of Maryland, and author of America Beyond Capitalism

“Owning Our Future is a highly readable single story of two entwined systems: the dying juggernaut of exploitive finance and the mostly unseen hothouse garden where new models of ownership are emerging. Many books about hopeful alternatives inspire cynicism; this one inspires a desire to take part.”

—Art Kleiner, Editor-in-Chief, strategy+business, and author of The Age of Heretics

“Marjorie Kelly has done it again. This seminal book will be the guidebook for transforming the corporation, and it’s hard to imagine anything more important now.”

—James Gustave Speth, Professor of Law, Vermont Law School, and cofounder, Natural Resources Defense Council

“Marjorie zeros in on perhaps the single most highly leveraged design variable in the architecture of our social forms. She is bringing the generative ownership model to life in a way that makes it accessible and compelling to business leaders everywhere. A wonderfully profound and pragmatic contribution to the field of social architecture.”

—Bill Veltrop, cofounder, Monterey Institute for Social Architecture, and former Exxon executive

“Of all the important elements lacking from progressive thought, ownership design is perhaps the most foundational. Kelly nails it in a way that can drive it home to everyone. This is the most thorough and properly nuanced treatment of the subject I’ve seen anywhere. Kelly is a brilliant writer.”

—David Korten, author of The Great Turning and When Corporations Rule the World

“This a must-read for anyone wondering whether there’s hope for humanity. In this deeply thoughtful work, Kelly demolishes the myth that there are no alternatives to capitalism as we know it.”

—Peter Barnes, cofounder, Working Assets/Credo, and author of Capitalism 3.0

“This is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of business.”

—Lynn Stout, Distinguished Professor of Corporate and Business Law, Clarke Business Law Institute, Cornell Law School, and author of The Shareholder Value Myth

“Anyone who cares enough about capitalism to save it from its worst excesses should read this book. Marjorie Kelly demonstrates convincingly that ownership by employees, community residents, and mission-driven charities, rather than by absentee shareholders, is the key to world-class performance.”

—Michael Shuman, author of Local Dollars, Local Sense and The Small-Mart Revolution

“This book fills me with hope about our economic future. It takes a visionary like Marjorie Kelly to point the way to new ownership models that will one day be seen as the only reasonable way to organize an economy.”

—Jenny Kassan, Managing Director, Katovich & Kassan Law Group

“Wow. It’s so simple but profound: ownership is the unifying theory of the economy. As you take the journey with Kelly, you feel a little like Sir Isaac Newton getting hit on the head by not just one apple but apple after apple—until you, too, experience an epiphany.”

—Alex Bogusky, Founding Partner, Crispin Porter + Bogusky (retired)