This panel will examine the growing movement for public ownership and its intersection with economic democracy. Panelists will discuss efforts to democratize public ownership in the U.S. and U.K. in the energy, water, telecommunications, and banking sectors, as well as efforts to defeat or reverse privatization schemes.

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This panel will examine the growing movement for public ownership around the world, including in the energy, water, telecommunications, and banking sectors, as well as efforts to defeat or reverse privatizations. It will assess the strengths and limitations of public ownership from the perspective of economic democracy and present theories and real-world examples of how and why public ownership can be democratized to increase worker, consumer, and resident participation and control, as well as democratic accountability and transparency. Particular attention will be given to the re-emergence of public ownership as a major policy goal in the United Kingdom and the United States and the re-municipalization movement in Europe, North America, and elsewhere. The panel will be moderated by Thomas M. Hanna, Research Director at The Democracy Collaborative and author of Our Common Wealth: The Return of Public Ownership in the United States. Panelists will include: Cat Hobbs, Founder and Director of We Own It!, a UK-based public ownership advocacy and campaign group; Andrew Cumbers, Professor in Regional Political Economy at the University of Glasgow and author of Reclaiming Public Ownership: Making Space for Economic Democracy; and Shahrzad Habibi, Research and Policy Director of In The Public Interest, a U.S. based research and policy center.