Equitable and Democratic Systems: Lessons from Bay Area Organizations

America’s democratic system has been built atop politics of exclusion and oppression. While strides have been made in enfranchisement and inclusion, communities continue to be systematically marginalized, dispossessed and disempowered. Processes illuminate the often invisible purpose and values that underlie systems, but as this research discusses, an overemphasis on process as the problem and solution has limited the potential to create substantive change.

To build a true democracy requires both imagining and building alternative political and economic systems that rest on the premise of equity and collective power. Social movements are at the forefront of transforming oppressive systems, and marginalized communities in particular are often on the frontlines of the struggle for justice. Collective and cooperative organizations have emerged within and alongside movements as explicit infrastructures that both embody and support social change. They form to respond to unjust material conditions in their communities related to land, labor, wealth and housing, while simultaneously being embedded in sustained movements, coalition building and policy advocacy efforts to address the root cause of these injustices.

Through numerous conversations with organizations located in the San Francisco Bay Area, this research highlights how systems that foster shared power are not only imaginable, but are being built. In sharing learnings from these organizations, this research tells the story of their challenges and visions, their various approaches to enacting change, and how they are linked to broader networks of mobilization. As microcosms of a truer democracy, collectives and cooperatives have implications for reshaping the relationship between people and power, at the individual, organizational, and societal level. Ultimately, this thesis presents these models as a pathway for transitioning from an extractive to a regenerative economy, and from concentrated to collective power.

Jimena Muzio Thesis Advisors: Siqi Zheng, Justin Steil

Understanding Housing Supply under Stringent Energyefficiency Regulations

Massachusetts’s commitment to a 50% emissions reduction by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050 is reflected in the Green Communities Act of 2008, which requires the adoption of the Stretch Energy Code for every municipality that is designated as a Green Community. This appendix to the base building code adds more stringent energy-efficiency requirements, such as including the HERS Index rating system in every new residential construction. Despite their obvious environmental benefits, more stringent energy-efficiency building regulations can also lead to increased construction costs and negatively impact housing production and affordability.

In this study, I investigate the tension in the housing supply resulting from the adoption of the Stretch Energy Code by analyzing municipalities’ staggered designation as Green Communities to identify the causal mechanisms behind quantity and price effects in the residential real estate market. The results indicate that more energy-efficient properties command a positive sales price premium and that the Stretch Code adoption is associated with a decrease in the housing quantity and an increase in the average housing prices.

Yingu Pan Thesis Advisor: Brent D. Ryan