With the US government busy de facto nationalizing major swaths of our crumbling economy, this Christmas season is a good time to turn our attention to the glorious, proud, worker-owned co-op factories of Europe--and then go all capitalist on them by buying their merch.
That's the idea behind the current exhibition/research project/department store at Le Grand Magasin in Berlin, a venue which, much like our beloved Kiosk in New York, searches the world for its ever-changing selection of themed, interesting stuff. Except by "world," they mean the co-ops of Europe. LGM's findings are pretty interesting, both in terms of how co-op businesses fare in various countries [Western European co-ops are more political, while co-ops in former Communist are more "pragmatic" and open, it turns out] and in the products they bring to market. There's a fairly broad selection of kids-related stuff, so check it out.
Le Grand Magasin: Spielzeug/Toys [coopseurope.coop via momus@nytimes]
