Are you ready to create cooperative culture?

The Cooperative Culture Handbook is designed for groups and teams that want to achieve their mission and build real cooperation.

Don’t wait! The world needs leaders like you to make change happen.

If we are going to survive the crises of our time, we must learn how to work together.

Cooperative groups are our best hope for addressing climate disruption, racism, poverty, homelessness, oppression and even pandemics. The good news is that groups form every day to address these issues. The bad news is that they struggle with conflict, gridlock, power battles, and falling participation.

In short, we lack the skills to convert our passion and intelligence into effective action.

That’s where The Cooperative Culture Handbook comes in to help.

With 52 transformative group and individual exercises, here’s a practical toolkit for groups to solve problems, build community, and change culture towards greater empathy and authenticity. This is an essential resource for leaders, facilitators and changemakers to develop core practices in discernment, curiosity, communication and engagement.

Get your copy in print or e-book format… and get on creating cooperation!

Paperback + Ebook – $30.00

Ebook – $14.00

Paperback – $22.00

Get the Cooperative Culture Handbook!

“The Cooperative Culture Handbook offers a clear and compelling alternative to the competitive society it seeks to replace. Written in simple and direct style, this book contributes to the emerging vision of a new society and inspires readers to join it. It should be read by anyone looking forward to the emergence of a cooperative culture in which everyone is equal and everyone thrives.”

Harville Hendrix, Ph. D. and Helen LaKelly Hunt, Ph. D, authors of  Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples and co-founders of Safe Conversations, A Social Movement 

“Yana and Karen describe practical exercises to help groups engage authentically and create a positive culture. This handbook addresses social justice in a way that will challenge even the most progressive community.”

Crystal Byrd Farmer, author of The Token: Common Sense Ideas for Increasing Diversity in Your Organization and FIC Board Member

Get the Cooperative Culture Handbook!

The Cooperative Culture Handbook offers a framework and practical toolkit for groups to solve problems, build community, and change culture towards greater empathy and authenticity. It is designed as a resource for leaders, facilitators and changemakers to develop core practices in discernment, curiosity, communication and engagement. In this inspirational guide, North American culture is broken down into 26 easy-to-understand Culture Keys, and 52 transformative group and individual exercises.

Here you will find the thought provoking ideas and hands-on tools you’ll need to achieve your mission… and create a truly cooperative culture!

So what world do you want to create together?

Meet the Authors

Yana Ludwig

Yana Ludwig

Yana Ludwig has 24 years of cooperative living experience, including four community start-ups. She serves on the board of the Foundation for Intentional Community, and as a trainer and consultant for progressive projects.

Yana’s first book, Together Resilient: Building Community in the Age of Climate Disruption, was awarded the Communal Studies Association 2017 Book of the Year Award. She is the former Executive Director of both the Center for Sustainable and Cooperative Culture at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, and Commonomics USA, an economic justice organization.

Her 2013 TEDx talk, Sustainable is Possible! kicked off a new era for her as a public speaker and advocate for communities. She is a founding member of the Solidarity Collective, an income sharing community in Laramie, WY, and a host on the community’s podcast, Solidarity House. yanaludwig.net

Karen Gimnig

Karen Gimnig

Karen Gimnig is a team builder, motivational speaker and relationship coach. As an Imago Facilitator, Karen uses the theory and practice of Imago Relationships to guide teams and communities through the complexity of working together. 

Karen has lived in cohousing and served as founder and member of communities that use consensus and sociocratic decision making. She is currently the Communications Director for the Cohousing Association. 

Other collaborative pursuits include co-authoring (with Yana Ludwig)  The Cooperative Culture Handbook: A Social Change Manual to Dismantle Toxic Culture and Build Connection, and co-creating (with Paul Tevis) the Employing Differences podcast.  

Karen’s clients describe her as “profoundly effective,” guiding groups to increase trust and providing simple (but not easy) tools for improved communication and relationships.


Get the Companion Book

The Cooperative Culture Handbook was written as a companion to author Yana Ludwig’s earlier book Together Resilient: Building Community in the Age of Climate Disruption. Together Resilient examines why citizen-led, community-based action is key to addressing our world’s greatest problems. The Handbook offers a framework and practical toolkit for how groups can solve such problems.

Buy them together for the complete package!

Together Resilient Book

Together Resilient:

Building Community in the Age of Climate Disruption

Real hope comes from looking unflinchingly at our current circumstances and then committing wholeheartedly to creative action. Never has that been more urgently needed than right now, with the climate crisis looming larger every day.

Together Resilient: Building Community in the Age of Climate Disruption is a book that advocates for citizen-led, community-based action first and foremost: why wait for the government when you can take action today, with your neighbors?

From small solutions to the full re-invention of the systems we find ourselves in, this book mixes anecdote with data-based research to bring you a wide range of options that all embody compassion, creativity, and cooperation. Together Resilient looks at intentional community as a model for a low carbon future. While looking realistically at the state of the world and the realities of climate disruption, it finds hope in examples of communities that already live high quality lives that the planet can sustain.

“When people ask me where to move to escape climate change, I tell them there’s no escape and that the thing to look for is a strong community. This book explains how to build that kind of community anywhere–it’s a manual for the future.”

Bill McKibben, environmental activist, founder of 350.org, and author of Earth, along with other books

Bill McKibben


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Thank you for supporting The Cooperative Culture Handbook, a 2020 publication of the Foundation for Intentional Community (FIC).